There would be many adjectives to describe Saturday’s Class 2A Girls Soccer Regional championship match between Ottawa and host Orion/Sherrard United.

The word, and fittingly so, that was used by many of the Pirates players was simply ... Crazy.

Ottawa held a five-goal lead at halftime only to see the Chargers score five consecutive times to begin the second half to tie the match.

But in overtime the Pirates scored the go-ahead tally in the opening minute, then added two more the rest of the way for a 9-6 victory.

“That was beyond crazy,” said Ottawa senior keeper Shaelyn Miller who made 12 saves. “I have so many emotions right now and I’m not sure I have words for what just happened. It was just an incredible experience and I’m so proud of everyone on this team.”

Ottawa (17-4) will return to Orion on Tuesday to face Geneva (12-6-1) in the sectional semifinals at 5 p.m. Orion/Sherrard United ends the season at 19-5.

“This team has come a long way from the beginning until today,” Ottawa sophomore midfielder Georgia Kirkpatrick said. “We’ve all worked very hard to improve and we have. Today was a crazy match, but the one thing we did that we’ve done all season is we stuck together. This was a great team win.”

The Pirates bolted to a 5-0 lead in the opening 25 minutes with Chloe Carmona scoring three times (two off assists from Kirkpatrick and the other by Kendall Hardee) and Kirkpatrick and Allison Power also finding the back of the net. Kirkpatrick now has 32 goals and 24 assists on the season.

The Chargers broke the string with five minutes remaining before halftime on a goal by Addie Jewett, but Power made it 6-1 seconds later with her 10th goal of the season off an assist by Carmona.

“[Orion/Sherrard] is a very good team and a very good offensive team,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “We talked at halftime how they have the ability to score goals in bunches and to their credit they showed that in the first 20 or so minutes of the second half to tie the match. I really don’t even necessarily were playing passive or bad in that stretch, they just really stepped things up.

“To our girls’ credit, they just kept pushing. Was it deflating to have our big lead overcome? Sure, but these girls wouldn’t be denied the goal they had.”

Orion/Sherrard exploded out of the break as Jewett scored twice in the opening five minutes. Then over the next 18 minutes Tegen Butler scored three times, the final tally with 17 minutes to play to tie the match at 6-6.

“It was looking a little bleak for sure,” Ottawa senior defender Taylor Brandt said. “They had the momentum and we just couldn’t seem to get it back. They are such a talented team, and they showed they wanted this match just as much as we did. We may have let our guard down after halftime, but they also came out ready to go.

“I’m not sure I would have believed you if you’d told me this season would play out like it has before it started. It’s been so great and I’m super proud of everyone on this team. I can’t believe how crazy today was.”

The Pirates took the lead for good just 56 seconds into the first of two 10-minute overtime periods when Carmona took a quick, short pass from Kirkpatrick and hard shot into the low left corner of the cage.

Carmona added another off a Kirkpatrick assist in the second extra period then put the icing on the cake with a penalty kick goal with four minutes left.

Carmona’s six goals in the match now gives the junior forward an eye-popping 54 on the season.

“That was such an intense, just crazy match,“ Carmona said. ”We talked before overtime about how we needed a strong start, we had to get the momentum back. Then Georgia made the great move to start overtime, the ball just ended up on my foot to me, and I was able to get a shot past their keeper.

“It was like a huge weight was lifted off our team’s shoulders. They had already made an amazing comeback before, so the key was not letting that happen again.”