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TEMPE — It took Rincon/University's sophomore forward Tamara Pridgett, a reigning state track champion in the sprints, 107 minutes to break away from a Glendale Ironwood defense that was concentrating on her every move.

With just over three minutes remaining in the second "golden goal" period — the fourth overtime session — in the 5A-II girls soccer state title game at ASU, Pridgett finally found a sliver of space, and then turned it into the game-winning goal as No. 6 seed Rincon knocked off No. 4 Ironwood 1-0.

"I wasn't worried about what (Ironwood) was doing, and how they were trying to stop me," said Pridgett. "I was going to play my game. And if they wanted to be all over me, I was going to go even harder."

The win locked up Rincon's first girls soccer championship since 1995. And Rincon went about it the hard way, knocking off the No. 3 (Deer Valley) and No. 2 (Westview) seeds before toppling Ironwood.

On the decisive goal, Pridgett out-sprinted a pair of Ironwood defenders for a loose ball deep in the Eagles' territory. When she caught up to the ball, there was no one within distance to halt her streak toward the net, just goalie Kelsie McCanna.

Rather than fire immediately, Pridgett brought McCanna out for a challenge, before smoothly popping the ball over the keeper's head and into the net.

"Whenever I get a wide-open one-on-one, I usually just shoot it right at the goalie and hope she misses," said Pridgett. "This time, I held onto it longer, just tried to wait until I had the right look at the last second."

The duo played to a scoreless tie through 80 minutes of regulation, two 10-minute regular overtimes and more than seven minutes of the "golden goal" extra sessions.

And after pulling out a dramatic semifinal victory in penalty kicks — including scoring twice in the final 10 minutes of regulation to send the contest into overtime — against Avondale Westview, Rincon coach Ian Kidd believed the championship likely would be decided in extra minutes.

"I felt we had them on the ropes. We were pressuring and pressuring and pressuring, and it was a matter of waiting for it to come," said Kidd. "I thought this one was going to come out 1-0."

Rincon finished the year 16-6.