Green Hope, ranked No. 7 in the state by eurosportscoreboard.com, scored with 9:42 left in the second half to break a 1-1 tie to clinch the most shocking upset of the playoffs thus far.

The winning goal came after a free kick from just inside midfield by Logan Paussa had sailed into the box, deflected off the head of Green Hope’s Nader Jaibat and splashed down in front of senior Jared Girard.

Girard one-timed the ball into the upper right corner of the net and was subsequently mugged by his teammates as he sprinted towards the sideline in jubilation.

It was unofficially Girard’s third goal of the night. The first came when Girard was once again the recipient of a free kick; this time with 1:10 left in the first half.

Chase Keesling sent the ball to the far right corner of the box, where it flicked off Girard’s head into the nearside corner.

At the time, it was just the seventh goal scored on Jordan (21-1-0) all year.

Green Hope (17-2-4) held that lead until 21:05 left in the game, when Jordan’s Jonathan Ray had a shot skid past a Green Hope defender before deflecting into the net off a sliding Girard for an own goal.

“That’s the first hat trick I’ve scored in a long time,” he said jokingly. “I’ll take it though … it hasn’t hit me yet.”

Ray was given a yellow card as he ran over to a heckling Green Hope student section with a shushing finger over his mouth.

In all, it was an unsettling result for Jordan who, after a perfect regular season, had hopes of a perfect end to that year in the state championship game.

“They’re devastated. This is a great team,” coach Steve Turner. “We’ve had a great season and this is the first loss of the year and it’s the end of the season.”

Even more surprising was how Jordan fell to a team it beat so handily in a 4-1 in their previous match-up on Aug. 24.

Aware of the pain Jordan’s players were going through, the Green Hope team made sure to congratulate each of stunned opposition – many of whom had fallen on the puddle-ridden pitch in disbelief.

“They’re such a good team. We actually thought the rain might be in our favor because they were so fast,” Green Hope coach Andrew Chadwick said. “We scored on two free kicks. We talked about free kicks and free kicks win championships and win games.”

Despite both Falcon teams sporting a number of talented players on their lineups, it was hard, for either to fully showcase it in such rainy conditions. It’s quite likely Barringer Field saw more inches of rain than goals scored.

Coaches from each team had wanted to start the game at 5 p.m. so as to avoid most of the torrential downpour, but this was disallowed by the NCHSAA.

“You couldn’t play soccer out here,” Chadwick said. “It was like playing soccer on a lake.”

With the win, Green Hope will move on to the East semifinals to face the winner of Broughton-Riverside – scheduled for today.

Green Hope will be 14-0-2 in its last 16 games heading into that contest. After losing eight seniors from last year’s team to collegiate soccer, it’ll be the third consecutive trip to the fourth round of the playoffs.

Senior goalkeeper James Earle said a concerted effort to improve during the offseason has paid off as the season has gone on.

“We just worked hard in the offseason, bonded as a team, learned to play together and as you can see we’ve really improved,” Earle said. “We lost to this team 4-1 [at home] and beat them 2-1 in the playoffs.”