Staff photo / Greg Macafee The Lakeview Bulldogs girls soccer team lifts up their district trophy after defeating the Waterloo Vikings in a penalty shootout Thursday night at Niles’ Bo Rein Stadium.

NILES — Everything came full circle for Lakeview girls soccer coach Marissa Brown Thursday night at Niles’ Bo Rein Stadium in the Division III, Akron I district finals.

The last time the Bulldogs reached the district title game and came out with a victory was in 2009, when Brown was a senior at Lakeview.

So, after a whirlwind of a contest that had a pair of two-goal scorers and ended with Lakeview goalie Ava Hipple stopping the Waterloo Vikings’ final kick of a penalty shootout to give the Bulldogs their first district title in 13 years, all Brown could do was smile.

“It’s a surreal experience for me because the last time the Lakeview Lady Bulldogs made it to a district championship was my senior year when I played for the team,” Brown said. “So it was pretty special to kinda come full circle, especially with this amazing talented group of young ladies. They have worked their butts off, they deserved this. The hustle, the attitude, the effort is there and smart and simple soccer made us successful.”

As the game came down to the final minutes and inched into the penalty shootout, flashbacks of last year’s tournament run started to reappear for Brown.

“We had a similar situation last year. We went into double overtime and we did both sets of PK’s,” Brown said. “So feeling that creep back in was a bit of a scare but I knew that when we were down the final minutes, as long as we locked in and made it to PK’s we’d be alright because our goalie Ava Hipple is so solid. There’s no surprise that she comes up with that save.”

The No. 2 Waterloo Vikings hadn’t lost a game all season long and it showed early on in their contest as they controlled the pace of play and kept possession of the ball through the first 10 minutes of the game. Their efforts finally came to a head about 11 minutes in when Hipple, a Bulldogs defender, and a Vikings attacker all converged on a loose ball before the ball bounced to the foot of Waterloo junior forward Kaira English, who put it away for a 1-0 lead.

English has been strong all season long for the Vikings and came into the game with 49 goals. Despite her two-goal performance, the Bulldogs contained her for most of the night.

“We had information that she was a talented player and that was definitely true,” Brown said. “So we were prepared to eliminate her opportunities to shoot and I think Annie Humphrey, our freshman, did an excellent job of that. She was playing in a holding defensive mid position and she tracked her the whole game in shutting her down.”

Shortly after English’s first goal, the Bulldogs answered with one of their own as senior captain Alexis Busefink made a run down the right side of the field and forced a corner kick. The ensuing kick just cleared the hands of Waterloo goalkeeper Sophia Wood and Lakeview’s Anastatia Hall was able to finish it off on the back post to tie the game.

Hall added her second of the game with just under 14 minutes left in the first half when Eliza Farr played a pass to Hall in the middle of the box and the senior captain finished it off to take a 2-1 lead.

“It was about grit,” Brown said about her team’s ability to bounce back from a one goal deficit. “We’ve talked about that all season. It’s about grit, it’s about taking care of business, giving 110-percent and not quitting and my girls did not quit.”

The Bulldogs held onto the lead for the rest of the first half, before the Vikings came out strong in the second and English cashed in on a header off a corner kick for her second goal of the game to tie it at two.

From there, both teams battled back-and-forth through the remainder of the game as they created their own opportunities. Both Hall and Lorelai Lowe came close on other opportunities at different times for the Bulldogs but neither could cash in down the stretch, which led to overtime and the penalty shootout.

The Bulldogs cashed in on all four of their penalty kicks while the Vikings sent their second kick over the right side of the cross bar and Hipple came up with a big stop on their fourth attempt.

Lakeview will now move on and take on Poland in the regional semifinals Tuesday at Ravenna at 5 p.m.