Normington-Slay's OT goal lifts Perkins to district title

BOWLING GREEN — Perkins senior Titus Normington-Slay has had a week few can even dream of. In a matter of four days, Normington-Slay scored the game-winning goal with less than three minutes to play in a district semifinal and followed it up with the game-winning goal in overtime of Saturday's district championship game. "I can't even describe it," Normington-Slay said. "If you take all your best weeks and multiple them, it's the week I'm having right now. I think it's great that sports can do that for people. I'm so happy to have this place to feel these things." Perkins came from two goals down, defeating Bryan 3-2 in a Division IV district final at Bowling Green High School. It is the Pirates' fourth district title after championships in 2008, 2021 and 2024. "We had momentum and we pushed more players forward," Perkins coach Paul Lea said. "We gave Titus opportunities, obviously. We had a few opportunities. We had Grant (Zimmerman) taking a shot, Whitten (Hart) taking a shot and Max (Zess) had the ball up high. We had guys in good positions. "It's been Titus all year. Two on him, three on him, it doesn't matter. He's always going to create chances and great players always do. " Normington-Slay now has 36 goals this season and extended his school record to 94 career goals. He was named Division IV district player of the year Sunday. "I think there's been one game all season where he hasn't contributed with a goal or an assist and that game he dictated the play," Lea said. "He's the best goal-scorer in Perkins history. He's the best player we've ever had and he must be in contention for All-American." The Pirates improved to 14-5-1 and will face No. 12 Liberty-Benton (16-3-1) in a regional semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Contractors Stadium in Norwalk. "We are 100 percent excited," Perkins goalie Danny Buga said. "I've been there three times in my career, so it's like home. It's 20 minutes down the road. They're going to have to travel a ways, but we'll be at home." After trailing 2-0 and tying the game late in regulation, the Pirates continued to control possession in overtime. They had some chances, but Buga also had to turn away the Golden Bears (12-6-2) multiple times. That was until Normington-Slay came through with the heroics. Hart, who set a program single-season record with 18 assists, sent a ball down to Normington-Slay. He was triple-teamed, but found his way around the defense to get a rocket off his left foot. It went past Bryan goalie Theodore Luthy with 2:55 left in the first overtime. "Whitten flicked it on, so it went over someone and gave me a little bit of an easier job," Normington-Slay said. "From there, it was me against two or three guys. They clouded my entire vision. All I saw was black and purple. I tried to go one way and they overcompensated for it. I came back and curled it with my left foot." Buga gave up two early goals, but was dominant over the final 40-plus minutes of the game. Bryan went up 1-0 when Carter Altaffer took a pass in front of goal and got it past Buga and the defense with 6:41 left in the first half. Altaffer doubled the lead with 33:07 to go in regulation. From there, Buga turned away chance after chance by the Golden Bears. "Without him, we lose 10 games this season," Lea said. "He's been exceptional. The first one was a corner that we didn't clear. It was poor defending. Maybe we fell asleep for a second. The second goal, the defense got broken through and Danny came out. He made four or five tremendous saves to keep us in the game." Normington-Slay got Perkins on the board with 21:26 to go. His header past Luthy cut the deficit to 2-1. Then, the Pirates tied the game on a goal from freshman London Keller with 1:40 remaining. Keller was supposed to be headed to a family vacation, but he and his mom cancelled the trip after Wednesday's win over Clear Fork. "It was another ball over the top and they had done a good job shutting that down," Lea said. "I think that one came with a bit more force. The goalkeeper made the initial save, fell on the rebound and didn't quite get ahold of it. London was right there to tap it home." Perkins has won five in a row and nine of its last 10 matches. Liberty-Benton won its fourth straight district title with a 2-0 win over Upper Sandusky. "We've been a second-half team all year and have always shown tremendous resilience, even against Clear Fork where we were down a goal," Lea said. "It shows drive and great work effort. We've been better as the season has gone on. I think at times we played a little too much Titus ball. "When we share the ball with the rest of the team, we commit defenders in different spaces and that opens him up even more."