ST. CHARLES – Austin Mullen tried not to overthink it.
The Lutheran St. Charles junior, having already scored on a penalty kick in the first half, delicately placed the ball at the penalty spot once again, this time in double overtime.
“I had a bit of nerves, but I took one second and said, ‘I got this,’” Mullen said.
Mullen hammered the game-winning PK into the same corner where he delivered the first one as Lutheran St. Charles defeated Duchesne 3-2 in a double-overtime thriller Monday at Duchesne High.
Lutheran St. Charles (6-8-1), the winner of the Class 1 state championship in 2021, defeated Duchesne for the fifth time in the last six meetings, with three decided in overtime.
The Cougars trailed 1-0 when Mullen stepped to the penalty spot for the first time. Senior Sam Magueja who has scored 55 goals in his stellar high school career, was fouled in the box in the 14th minute and yielded his PK opportunity to Mullen.
“I was honestly surprised he let me take it, because he’s usually the one who takes it,” Mullen said. “But when he said, ‘You take it,’ I said, ‘OK,’ and I stepped up and confidently put it away.”
Magueja added, “I know he’s going to make every one.”
That confidence was verified early in the second overtime period after a bounding ball struck the hand of a Duchesne defender in the penalty area.
Mullen found himself in the same location but on the opposite side of the field with an opportunity to finish the game.
“I’ve had two (penalty kicks) in the same game but never in this scenario – OT, last play of the game,” Mullen said. “I stepped up, I saw the goalie and I could tell which way he was probably going, so I put it in the same place I put the last one.”
Mullen scored the lone goal for Lutheran St. Charles in a 3-1 loss to Duchesne earlier this season. Pioneers’ junior Brendan Donovan scored twice in that Sept. 21 matchup, and he quickly impacted the game on Monday.
In the 8th minute, Donovan dribbled down the right side and delivered a beautiful cross to senior Landon Kristensen, who chimed a shot off the crossbar. Sophomore Drew Heischmidt settled the carom and deposited it into the back of the net from 10 yards away to give Duchesne an early 1-0 lead.
Mullen tied the game with his first PK six minutes later and his dangerous shots kept coming. A blast from distance sailed inches over the crossbar, and moments later, his heavy shot from 25 yards away was blocked. The ricochet traveled towards sophomore Thomas Richter, who in one swing of his left foot, volleyed it into the back of the net to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead in the 26th minute.
“I had my chance, I took it and it went in,” Richter said.
Richter, who scored just his second goal of the season, predicted he would score prior to the game.
“He was talking about scoring all during warmups,” Magueja said.
After falling behind by a goal, the 2-1 halftime lead was something Lutheran St. Charles coach Eric Ocampo was pleased to see.
“We’ve struggled this year with starting slow. It’s a curse we’ve got, getting down early, but the boys fought through,” Ocampo said.
The Cougars also had struggled in games decided by one goal, but Lutheran St. Charles emerged from halftime determined to change that trend. Led by senior defenders Luke Floyd and Deven Civili, Lutheran St. Charles thwarted offensive advances for Duchesne while helping their forwards generate scoring chances of their own.
In the second half, Lutheran senior Henry Bertel laced a shot pegged for the upper left corner that required a two-handed, diving rejection by Duchesne senior goalkeeper Ben Burke.
After Civili made a splendid defensive play and delivered a through-ball, Bertel escaped on a breakaway that Burke denied in the 64th minute.
“I thought we won the second half. We kept the momentum and the ball rarely went past half-field,” Ocampo said.
But the set pieces of the Pioneers became more dangerous as the game progressed.
A free kick by Kristensen found the head of senior Tyler Purvis, popped straight in the air and drifted to Heischmidt, who knocked it into the goal in the 70th minute to tie the game.
Heischmidt almost earned his hat trick four minutes later, but a left-handed, diving save by Lutheran sophomore goalkeeper Brendan Arens sent the game to overtime.
“I thought, ‘Are we going to break through,’ because it seemed like we weren’t going to, but one got through right at the end and we had new life,” Duchesne coach Patrick Turner said.
Duchesne (13-5) parlayed that new life into a flood of chances in the first overtime. A combination passing play started by defender Tyler Purvis advanced to Heischmidt delivered to Donovan and shot by sophomore Landon McCarthy drifted inches over the crossbar.
Kristensen received a cross from McCarthy and drilled it over the crossbar 20 seconds later, and a corner kick earned by the Pioneers as time was winding down never materialized despite a hurried attempt to get it off.
“Nerve-wracking,” Magueja said of the first overtime.
But between the first and second overtimes, the Cougars reset.
“We said, ‘We’ve been here before. Let’s fix some things, play smart and play our game and that’s what we did,’” Mullen said.
A shift in mindset created a shift in momentum for the Cougars and eventually led to the penalty kick opportunity that won the game.
“It was a great game. It’s always a close, hard-fought, physical game when we play them. It’s just the way the ball bounces sometimes,” Turner said.
Lutheran St. Charles has a newfound bounce in its step after a 1-4 record to start the season. Victories over perennial power Whitfield and an excellent Farmington team provided the catalyst for the victory Monday over a 13-win Duchesne team.
“Upsetting Whitfield and Farmington gave us a really big boost of confidence. That built us up as a team and we think we can win every game now,” Mullen said.
Magueja added, “We’ve found our rhythm.”