One massive comeback completed, and the Pella Girls soccer team is state tournament bound for the 13th time in program history after defeating conference rival Norwalk 3-2 Monday night.

The Lady Dutch were forced into a difficult hole, as Norwalk scored two goals in the 11th and 13th minutes to place Pella in a two-nil deficit early. Defender Josie Lickteig says it was one of the toughest hills the team has had to climb in her time on the varsity roster.

“I was in shock,” she says. “I think everyone was in shock initially when the second goal went in. But we really had to come together and say ‘do we really want this to be our last game together?'”

Pella was able to bounce back in short order with a Grace Held goal in the 21st minute to cut the deficit in half. The Lady Dutch came out firing and dominated the second 40 minutes of regulation, punctuated by another Held goal, this time a header off of a contested corner kick, which tied the game with 26:36 left in the 2nd half. Pella controlled the action until overtime, when in the extra period, Pella survived a near goal by Norwalk, and then put an exclamation point on the end of a regional finals epic with a hat trick completed by Held.

“I didn’t see it hit the back of the net because I hit the goalie, but running on to it, I knew I had a chance and I knew there was going to be contact, and I just played through it, hit it far corner as best I could, and luckily, it went in,” Held says.

The No. 6 Lady Dutch qualify for the 13th time at state with the win, and will have another rival ahead of them in the Class 2A bracket in the quarterfinals. No. 3 ranked Dallas Center-Grimes will be the opener–the teams played to a PK shootout in the conference season that went to the Fillies in Grimes. The game begins at 2:15 Thursday afternoon at the Cownie Sports Complex in Des Moines — the game can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS.