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WORLAND - It should not come as a surprise by now but the Worland Warriors were involved in another tight contest Saturday afternoon at Worland High School.

The Warriors defeated the Newcastle Dogies 4-3 by way of penalty kicks during the 3A boys soccer state qualifier to advance to the 3A state tournament to play the Riverton Wolverines Thursday at 4 p.m.

"From a possession standpoint we dominated the game, but what could go wrong did go wrong for us. Yet, the kids never gave up and kept fighting," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast.

The last time the Dogies and Warriors met, it was 5-1 victory in favor of the Warriors. Saturday's contest was nothing like that April 7 match and the two teams traded haymakers for all 100 minutes with a state tournament berth hanging in the balance.

The Warriors stuck first with a goal late in the first half when junior Brayan Castro gained control of a rebound off a Rylan Mocko miss and made the most of it. The Dogies would answer early in the second half with a lob shot that was just out of the reach of Warrior keeper Coy Larkins.

The Dogies kept the Warriors on their heels for a few minutes longer but junior Warrior Mason Werbelow regained the momentum for his team with a successful strike on goal, giving Worland a 2-1 lead.

"We told them Newcastle had nothing to lose in this game. It's why the No. 1-seed is a big deal," said Overcast when talking about how the Warriors lost the 3A Northwest quadrant on a little known rule. "You avoid these games because you never know what's going to happen. We'd go up but could never seem to get that second goal. Then something would happen on the defensive end and Newcastle would tie it back up. It says a lot about a team to fight through a game like this. To go ahead, have it tied up and that back and forth it shows how tough these boys are to find a way to get a win."

Fitting the ebb and flow of the match, the Dogies struck in a corner kick that slipped out of the hands of Larkins. Tied 2-2 the Dogies were flying around the field and challenging the Warriors on every ball. But, again, the Warriors collected their composure and Werbelow again came up big for his team.

Werbelow took a cross and perfectly lobbed a shot over the Newcastle keeper and into the left corner of the goal. Now up 3-2 the Warriors and the home crowd cheering them on the Warriors were on their way to closing out the match.

With little time remaining the Warrior defense kept the Dogies in check. That was until a very chaotic play which gave the Dogies the upper hand on the Warrior defense. They took full advantage as they struck in game-tying goal, stunning the Warriors and their fans.

Even as they were in a state of shock the Warriors put together one last effective attack in regulation but just missed, sending the match into extra time.

Aside from one scare by the Dogies, the Warriors dominated possession of the ball in extra time and had quality shots on goal but could not finish. With the match still tied 3-3 at the end of extra time, a penalty shootout would decide the winner.

A little over month ago the Warriors struggled with penalty kicks in the Pinnacle Challengers Cup tournament and as a result lost two matches to Rock Springs and Evanston by shootout.

Now with their season hanging in the balance the Warriors had the opportunity to show the improvement from that tournament.

The Warriors picked their spots and executed as Kyle Lamb, Castro, Mocko and Wyatt Wyman successfully struck in their goals. Leading the Dogies 4-3 in the shootout the Warriors needed one more save from Larkins, who had stopped one Dogies shot during the shootout.

The Dogies player lined up the ball, waited for the head official to give the OK, struck the ball and sent it sailing over the goal post; sending the Warriors on to the state tournament.

"After that tournament we played in and lost those two games on two shootouts, a shootout was about the last thing we wanted. For the past two weeks we've been working on penalty kicks and [Saturday] that's why we practice that kind of stuff," said Overcast. "It was interesting, I texted coach [Kim] Wyman before the game and asked her thinking about a shootout who would you pick? And we had a list and went with it."

As soon as the ball cleared the post, the rest of the Warrior team happily sprinted toward Larkins and dogpiled their keeper.

"We never do anything easy and we certainly didn't do that against Newcastle. I know people might be getting tired of hearing about it but it goes back to that blue-collar culture we've tried to establish these last six years. We're going to keep working and we aren't going to give up. There's a grit to this team and we keep grinding and that's what we did," said Overcast. "The boys stepped up there, made their penalties, Coy got a save and we're going to state."

The Warriors will face the No. 2-ranked and the Southwest No. 1-seeded Riverton Wolverines Thursday at 4 p.m. on field 2 of the Big Horn Equestrian Center in Big Horn. Worland has only played Riverton once this season which resulted in a 1-0 loss to the Wolverines on April 13 at Riverton High School.

"Riverton is an excellent team. They were in the 4A finals last year and returned everyone. We're going to have our work cut out for us. They'll probably possess the ball more than us, so we'll look to hit them on a counter and catch them off guard," said Overcast.

If the Warriors are to make a run to the state championship they're going to be the underdogs in each match, but one skill set that this team has which could get them there is their ability to execute and win close matches.

"Every game we play in it seems to be close. That's a good thing to have in a team and it goes back to work ethic. They know they can play with anyone in the state and know if they keep grinding and good things will happen," said Overcast, "The thing with this team, my guys will show up and play has hard as they can. They always play hard and that's all as a coach I can ask for."