By Lucas Sullivan Cox News Service

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COLUMBUS — After the second sudden-death overtime period expired, Greeneview head coach Bob Eakins ran to his bag, pulled out a crumpled up roster from the bottom and wrote down the numbers 3, 7, 12, 15, 18.

And that, along with goalkeeper Martin Ellis, is how the Rams won the school's first state championship in any sport — claiming a 1-0 victory over Youngstown Cardinal Mooney in a shootout in the Division III state final at Columbus Crew Stadium on Friday. The Rams took the title after winning the penalty kick round, 3-1.

The Rams, ranked No. 1 for most of the season in the coaches state soccer poll, finished the year with a 23-0 record.

The numbers represented Dustin Bryan, Nick Bryan, Brock Gill, Jared Randall and Ryan Hartman, respectively. That was the Rams' penalty kick order after two 40-minute halves and two 15-minute periods of overtime failed to yield a goal for either team.

"We had never discussed or come up with a penalty-kick order ever," Eakins said. "I mean we had nothing before I went and wrote it down."

Dustin Bryan went first, but his attempt went right of the goal. Things started to look bleak when Mooney's Zack Hernan put it past Ellis to put the Cardinals up 1-0.

It went from bad to worse when Nick Bryan's ensuing attempt was blocked by Mooney goalkeeper Andrew Loudon. But Ellis then knocked off Mooney's next attempt and Gill put the Rams on the board by burying the ball in the left side of the net.

Mooney's Dom DiPasquale then sent his attempt wide and Ellis stoned the next attempt, this time reading Mooney's Kyle Buxman, who lined up straight to the ball and kicked it right to the senior keeper.

"I knew that's where it was going," Ellis said. "I just read it and made the save. I knew it was going to be straight at me."

Ryan Hartman put the Rams up 2-1 with a liner past Loudon and after another Ellis stuff, Randall then buried the ball in the right of the net and with it, the Cardinals' title hopes.

"They played hard, you have to give him credit," said Cardinals coach Lenny Krispinsky, whose team outshot the Rams 43-11 for the game. "We had our chances (before the shoot-out), but they have a really good defense."

The Rams are now one for one.

"It's just a magical thing," said Randall, who plays sweeper for the Rams. "I was just thinking that if I make this we win and I had to do it."

After Randall's kick went through, players were torn whether to run to him or Ellis, but everyone got hugs in the end.

"We are 23-0 and just won the state title," said Ellis, wiping tears from his face. "That is the best I've ever done on penalty kicks."

He picked a perfect time to do it.

Though the shot disadvantage was more than 30 for the Rams, only 11 of Mooney's attempts were on goal and Ellis gobbled up every one. The Cardinals also had a 15-1 corner-kick advantage, but all were turned away.

Sweepers Luke Benton, Zach Davidson and Randall did a good job of contesting most of Mooney's shots, 15 of which came from Hernan, the team's leading scorer.

"They've done it all season," Ellis said. "They are such a big help to me back there. I feel like I can go get anything with those guys back there."

Greeneview's best chance for a goal came in the first half when Dustin Bryan had a one-on-one attempt with Loudon, but decided to pass it off to Hartman.

In the second half, it was all Mooney on offense.

"We made a concerted effort to control the ball in the second half," Krispinsky said. "We wanted to put as much pressure as we could on their defense."

That defense, however, did not buckle. And you know what they say — it wins championships.

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