MAHOMET - Penalty kicks are a silly way to decide a soccer game. That's according to the winning coach in the Mahomet-Seymour Class AA sectional final Thursday night, Champaign Centennial High School's Cole Bushue. | Photo gallery

"It's basically a coin flip," said Bushue, whose team won the flip and the game, 1-0, over University High. "My hat is off to U High. They were fantastic tonight. They've been fantastic all year."

Both teams were fantastically even - and scoreless - through two 40-minute halves and four 10-minute overtime periods before it went to the dreaded penalty kicks where Centennial prevailed, 5-3.

The Chargers (20-2-3), whose only other sectional title came in 2001, advanced to Monday's 7 p.m. Peoria Notre Dame Super-sectional to face the host school, a 2-0 winner over Dunlap on Thursday.

Defending sectional champion U High (16-4-5) almost landed its eighth trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

"They've been the best team in this area for years," Bushue said. "It was two fantastic teams playing a great game."

Centennial star Kyle Bullock opened the shootout, scoring with a low shot to the left of U High sophomore goalie Cole Wardlow. Clint Vatterrodt tied it for the Pioneers against goalie Michael Drackley before Stefan Wingo put the Chargers up, 2-1.

U High's Mitch Rogers then narrowly missed left before Neil Hamilton put Centennial ahead to stay. Bryant Carlson and Matt Mendez were perfect on their attempts for the Pioneers, who didn't take a fifth shot after Kenny Krantz and Jonathan Hinds made it 5-3.

"He (Rogers) is down, obviously, right now," said first-year U High coach Jeremy Stanton. "He's a great PK shooter. That's why we had him up there. He hit it a little wide."

Rogers' teammates reached out to him afterward.

"I love Mitch no matter what," Mendez said. "Life is ups and downs. The sun will come up tomorrow. "

Stanton, whose team also dropped a 1-0 decision to Centennial on Sept. 12, felt his squad played well enough to win in regulation.

"It's two evenly matched teams," he said. "We could play 10 games and it would be five to five."

Bushue joked with Stanton prior to the game about how terrible it would be if it came down to penalty kicks.

"I didn't even watch (the shootout)," Bushue said. "I hate penalty kicks. I was just listening to the crowd."

In the first half, U High outshot Centennial, 8-2, but trailed at the end, 20-17.

"The first half I thought they dominated us," Bushue said. "I thought the second half we settled down and played fantastic."

Stanton had to move leading-scorer Zach Wall from forward to center mid to replace E.J. Schiller, who sprained an ankle in Tuesday's semifinal against Champaign Central

"We definitely missed him," Stanton said, "but the other guys stepped up and played great."

The 6-foot-7 Vatterrodt played well, getting his head on nearly ever ball on set pieces despite double and triple coverage.

"It wasn't easy for him," Stanton said. "He's our target man in there. He still won his fair share of head balls in there."

Vatterrodt nearly scored with 2:00 left in the first half when Wall sent him a free kick, which he booted off the left post. It was one of many near misses Stanton said have "been killing" U High of late.

"I feel for these (eight) seniors," he said. "To put in four years and lose on PKs… I know exactly how they feel because that's how we lost at state my senior year (in 1996 with U High). It's not a fun way to go out."