After all the lessons, practices, games and the hardship of suffering through a hip injury which had threatened to end his final year in high school soccer, it all came down to this.
John Hardin senior Matt Skaff stood at the line preparing for the kick that would settle the game and finally propel the Bulldogs to their first regional championship, 2-1 in a shootout.
With the score tied 3-3 after an Elizabethtown score on Taylor Fentress' shot, Skaff ended the suspense by firing one past Panther Goalie Jacob Wilson.
"I knew I was going to hit it," Skaff said. "I told the coach I wanted to go fifth, because I knew that I was going to hit it."
Skaff wasn't the only hero on this cool windy night.
There was John Hardin senior goalkeeper Ross Redmond, who had allowed two goals in his last 459 game minutes in the net and made one heart stopping play after another to keep his team close.
"It's all just reaction,” Redmond said. “You either save it or you don't. You make a save and then you go home."
Then there was Chad Johnson, who made one of the penalty kicks and played superb defense.
"We have been the underdogs in this tournament,” he said. “We beat the No. 13 team and the team which had beaten us twice during the season."
For the Bulldogs, the season continues as they will host a semi-state game for the first time ever.
"You really can't think of a better story,” coach Alex Shearer said. “He gets hurt during the preseason. He comes back once, gets hurt, goes through therapy, then gets back just in time to kind of help us at the end of the season and here he is hitting the PK to win the Regional championship. That's a good story."