ROCHESTER HILLS >> Atonement couldn’t have felt better for Troy Athens forward Lauren DeJonckheere.

Following a forgettable moment in the second half of Friday night’s game against Dakota, the senior scored both goals in the latter overtime period, lifting the Red Hawks to a 3-1 victory for a D1 regional championship at Rochester High School.

“We’ve been down, up, through a lot of different situations that really prepared them for this,” Athens head coach Jason Clark said. “We got a little frantic, but they always believe, because we’ve been there before, we’re there for each other, we believed in each other, and that’s what really mattered tonight.”

Teammates rallied around DeJonckheere after a potential game-tying penalty kick skidded just wide of the left post with 24 minutes left in regulation. She had also drawn the penalty on a short corner routine that saw her drawn toward its taker, sophomore Charlotte Cotta, but a collision to the back of DeJonckheere as she ran towards Cotta made for an easy decision for the referee to point to the spot.

“I wish I could say I put it away (in my mind) right away,” DeJonckheere said. “I did not. I put it into fuel instead. I was like, ‘I missed, and I owe it to myself, I owe it to the team, I have to redeem myself. I have to make it up to all of them.’ Because everybody worked so hard. Our back line kept us in the game the entire time and we had a lot of chances that we didn’t finish on, so I knew that I had to make it up to everybody, especially myself.”

That meant a sigh of relief for DeJonckheere when fellow senior Melanie Wilson whipped in a cross from the right flank for Cotta, who met it with a volleyed effort that rang the crossbar before hitting the ground and crossing the line to tie the game 1-1 with just under 6:30 left in the second half.

“Oh, 100% relief,” DeJonckheere confirmed. “I’m really proud of (Charlotte). She’s been doing that the whole year and I had confidence in her the whole time. I knew she was gonna get one.”

Of the game-tying strike, Cotta said, “I saw the cross, and I was like, ‘I’m getting on the end of this,’ and I poked it in. For a second I was worried because it did hit the crossbar and then dropped down and bounced. It was kind of coming out, but I knew for sure it went in.”

After a diving stop by Athens senior goalkeeper Ashley Miller in the first 20 seconds to start the second half, the Red Hawks were anchored in the attacking third of the field in the 15 minutes that followed.

None of that mattered when Dakota earned a corner against the run of play and Jenna Accetta’s outswinger with pinpoint accuracy produced a header by senior classmate Sophia Mastronardi that got the Cougars on the board just three minutes before Athens’ penalty.

“It was especially (great) for us, too, because we don’t score a lot on corner kicks, especially against the tough teams like Athens,” Dakota head coach Gary Schodowski said. “And they’re really good at corner kicks, by the way, and we were defending well against them. It was a nice goal, nice to get ahead. Obviously, we tried to keep the lead (and did) other than those last six minutes.”

Cougars senior goalkeeper Maggie Mata had a one-two punch sequence less than three minutes before Cotta’s equalizer to stave off danger, then had a save on a header at the near post two minutes after the Red Hawks tied it to keep her team on level pegging.

The final minute of regulation had its share of excitement, though maybe not on the level of Athens’ shootout win against Eisenhower three nights prior. Accetta fired a swerving shot that Miller collected with 40 seconds left, then the Red Hawks quickly broke upfield for a clear-cut chance beyond the Cougars’ defense, but the Athens attacker was ruled offside, bringing about overtime.

Each team nearly had its moment in the first period of overtime. When a corner delivery for Athens took a few stray bounces in the box, it lined up for a Red Hawks’ curled shot from 15 yards out that took a bounce off the crossbar.

Just a minute after, Cougars senior Sofia Capoccia ripped an attempt from beyond the 18-yard box that forced Miller to pick it out of the upper 90 to her left with about 6:30 on the clock.

Finally, DeJonckheere’s redemption and the Red Hawks’ first lead of the evening arrived a little less than three minutes into the second 10-minute OT.

“Ashley (Thornton) took what was a fortunate touch for me, and I just pounced on it, tucked it away,” said DeJonckheere, a returning first-team All State captain.

She erased any doubt by putting Athens up by two goals with 4:14 to go in the second overtime.

“Charlotte played a through ball and the goalie came off her line,” DeJonckheere said. “I saw she left the whole back post open, and I was like, ‘I’m just gonna poke this.’ I just got my posture (right) and it went in the back post.”

Mata was called upon plenty before the Red Hawks finally scored their first goal, including arguably the game’s first major save on a shot by Cotta with 24 minutes left in the first half. Even before that, she had to parry several shots by Athens over the bar to keep it nil-nil.

Meanwhile, her opposite in Miller wasn’t all too disappointed that a third game in a row wouldn’t be heading to penalties.

“Oh my gosh, I’m literally relieved,” said Miller, who had pivotal stops in each shootout. “I’m literally relieved. I was really nervous. I thought we were going to go into PKs, but my team pulled through. We worked hard and didn’t give up, so I’m just happy with the result we got. (This run has been) so emotional. I’ve been drained mentally, physically, but our team keeps pushing through. We keep working hard and this team is just incredible together.”

Dakota, who beat Berkley 2-0 in Tuesday’s regional semifinal, ends the year with a record of 10-9.

“Coming into the game tonight, we knew were were the underdogs,” Schodowski said. “All I told the girls was, ‘Come out, play with your heart and show everybody that you’re meant to be here. I’m glad that we did and gave them the game that we did. To get to a second overtime shows that we are competitive and we can play. I think a lot of people doubted us because didn’t get seeded so well in districts, so it was good.”

Athens returns to the Final Four after last appearing in 2021, when it reached the D1 final, and is making its first semifinal appearance under Clark, who is in his second year as head coach of his alma mater. The Red Hawks will face unbeaten Saline (16-0-2) on Wednesday at Birmingham Seaholm with a ticket to East Lansing on the line.

“I think the goal (we allowed) woke us up and made it real for us,” Clark said. “We’ve had such a great season, the girls love each other so much. We’d come this far, we didn’t want to stop tonight. Tonight will not be the last night. We left it all out there.”