Genoa-Kingston’s confidence in its ability to win Saturday’s Genoa-Kingston Class 1A Regional championship game never wavered, even when Hiawatha tied the game, 1-1, with just six minutes remaining and took over the run of play.

“It felt like the momentum had shifted when they scored,” G-K senior forward Devin Tijerina said. “Everyone on our team got frustrated and kept fouling down toward the box and they had a lot of chances for goals on free kicks …  We talked about it in the last couple of minutes, saying we could get a goal before it goes to overtime.”

This year was supposed to be better than 2011, with seven seniors back, and anything less than a second straight regional championship would have been a disappointment.