NorthWood’s girls soccer team poses with the Lakeland Girls Soccer Sectional championship trophy after defeating DeKalb Saturday night. (Photo provided)

LAGRANGE – NorthWood head coach Phil Ummel spoke with certainty after his team won their Lakeland Girls Soccer Sectional semi-final game against Wawasee Thursday night. Their mission was nothing less than leaving the sectional with a championship.

Mission accomplished.

For the first time in program history, NorthWood claimed a girls soccer sectional championship and did so in dramatic fashion with a 4-2 penalty shootout win over DeKalb Saturday night.

Both teams were scoreless through regulation and the two overtime periods.

In the shootout, NorthWood had Savannah Feenstra, Mackenzie Bergman, Kali Parisi and Cindy Barahona step over the ball and convert their tries while DeKalb had just Kendyl Smith and Natalia Martin make their tries.

Kira Robinson made a save in the shootout to help NorthWood to the regional round, where it will meet West Lafayette at Plymouth next Saturday. NorthWood previously was 0-7 in sectional championship games.

Robinson, who also blocked a Wawasee penalty try Thursday night, made seven saves in regulation while counterpart Erica Bolinger was nearly as stout with five saves.

NorthWood advances with a 12-4-2 mark, DeKalb wraps at 13-3-2.