How important was Saturday’s game against Freedom for the Northampton girls soccer team? Head coach Michael Missmer summed it up.

“I said to my coaches, ‘If we lost this game, we’re done. In my opinion, we’re done. If we win this game, I think we win it out and I think we go after a district championship,’” Missmer said.

The K-Kids entered the contest against defending district champion Freedom with a 2-4 record and needing three wins in their final four games to qualify for the postseason.

The game started ideally for Northampton as a Patriots’ handball led to a Raine Korpics’ goal on a free kick with less than two minutes elapsed. Twelve minutes later Korpics assisted on a Lauren Straub goal to boost the advantage to two.

However, the next three tallies belonged to Freedom as they surged into the lead with 5:40 left in the first half.

Isabella Nota drew the K-Kids even two minutes later assisted by Jordyn Smolenak.

Freedom’s star player, Haley Gschrey, scored what appeared to be a backbreaking goal with 28 seconds left in the half to send the game to intermission with the Patriots up 4-3.

After a goal-filled first 40 minutes, the two teams tightened up their defenses and good scoring chances became scarce. As the clocked ticked under 10 minutes to play and the K-Kids still down by a goal, the stress and urgency were apparent in the coaches’ shouted instructions.

When the clock wound below 6 minutes, it felt like the team’s season was going up in smoke. Two of Northampton’s senior captains made sure that was not going to happen as Kyleigh Straub found Alex Benedict for the equalizer with 5:31 left in regulation.

Straub described the goal.

“The ball was coming straight for my head,” she said. “I jumped up, had to put something on it. Alex was right there and ready to run on that.”

The emotional lift of new life carried over into extra time. The K-Kids found a higher gear and their constant pressure finally broke through with a golden goal by Nota assisted by Benedict at the 6:44 mark.

The victory was even sweeter because it served as revenge for Freedom ending the Kids’ season in overtime of the district semifinals last year.

Straub said, “Us seniors, we’re not ready to be done and we don’t plan to be done until the last game possible. It felt good to be in the same position and WE ended it this time.”

Northampton followed the 5-4 triumph over Freedom with a 2-1 win at Bethlehem Catholic on Monday. The victory evened the K-Kids’ record at 4-4 and left them one win away from district qualification. The second game with Beca was played Wednesday, but the result was not available at press time.

The regular season finale will be Saturday at home against Freedom at 10 a.m. Depending on Wednesday’s results, both teams could need the game to lock up a district bid. The Patriots were 3-5 after their 1-0 win over Liberty on Monday with that rematch on Wednesday.