MONROE — Mila Miropolskaya mentally prepared for this exact moment.

Shorewood girls soccer engaged in a hard-fought battle on the road against Monroe in a slick, rainy District 1 3A quarterfinals that, after 80 minutes and two five-minute overtime periods, remained tied 1-1 to send it into penalty kicks.

Shorewood’s sophomore goalkeeper, who entered the match to start the second half and kept a clean sheet, recalled what she said to herself on the bus ride over to the game as she set herself on the line for Monroe’s first attempt.

“If we go to PK’s, first one, I’m going left,” Miropolskaya said. “Doesn’t matter who it is, I’m going left.”

With her mind made up hours ago, she didn’t waste any time overthinking as Monroe senior Emily Hobbs backed up for the kick. As promised, Miropolskaya dove to her left, where she met the shot and knocked it away for the save. She picked correctly.

Then, in a surprising development, Shorewood coach Shaun Warner tabbed Miropolskaya to take the first penalty kick for the No. 6 seed Stormrays (9-6-3). She scored with a rocket to the right, then made another save before senior Jasmine Bea Lumbera, freshman Sky Helstad and senior Scarlett VonGunten each converted their shots to advance 4-2 on penalty kicks against the No. 3 seed Bearcats (10-4-2).

Warner called an audible in the penalty kick order, as his typical first choice kept getting her shots saved by Monroe during the game, so he decided to roll with his goalkeeper to set the tone.

“The keepers always ask, ‘Well, can we take one for fun?’ and (Miropolskaya’s were) just always consistently driven,” Warner said. “She can go either direction, she can go anywhere, and she’s a keeper, so she’s kind of got a mindset of knowing (how a keeper approaches penalty saves). I was like, ‘Let’s just start with her,’ and then (knowing) her mindset and attitude, I was like, ‘Even if she misses, she’s gonna be pissed and save the next one anyway.’”

Miropolskaya made the second save anyway, putting Shorewood in position to advance. Lumbera went bar-down on her shot, Helstad slotted hers into the bottom right corner, and VonGunten went low right to seal it. But if it weren’t for the heroics of senior Jasmyn Jacobs in the second overtime, the Stormrays would not have had an opportunity to advance in penalty kicks at all.

While Shorewood controlled the pace for the first half of the golden goal overtime, it was Monroe that had the best opportunity to win in the second half. With Miropolskaya playing high off the line, Bearcats freshman Kiana Landerdahl managed to poke the ball through toward the net. Before it rolled over the completely open goal line, Jacobs stormed back and cleared it out of danger to keep the game going. Miropolskaya credited the defender for her ability to stay on her marked attacker throughout the entire game, and teammates echoed praise.

“She’s fighting through an injury right now, and she really stepped up for the team,” Lumbera said. “We love her for that.”

While the Stormrays came out on top, Monroe pulled ahead 1-0 in the first half when freshman Finley Greear took a pass out wide right from Landerdahl and rifled a high shot under the crossbar in the 31st minute. After spending much of the first half controlling possession but struggling to execute passes upfield, the Bearcats finally broke through.

It took just three minutes for Shorewood to respond. Given a free kick from nearly 40 yards out, Helstad stepped up to take it. Given the wet conditions, Helstad knew she just needed to get the ball on frame to give her teammates a chance to tap in a rebound if it slipped out. As it turned out, that wouldn’t be necessary.

Helstad booted the ball towards the goal, and it took a fortuitous bounce off the wet turf and right between the Monroe goalkeeper’s legs into the back of the net to tie it 1-1 in the 34th minute.

“I knew the ball was going to slide a little bit,” Helstad said. “But I was just trying to get it on frame, just in case, and it went in frame.”

Greear pushed right back for the Bearcats in the early minutes of the second half, utilizing good footwork to set up a couple of opportunities, but the Stormrays defense stepped up to turn them away. As the time ticked down, each side took turns tilting the action to the opposite end of the field as both fought for a go-ahead goal.

“Monroe did a good job on us,” Warner said. “I think the conditions were difficult for both teams, and just the rain and the ball skipping and all that, so it wasn’t a pretty game. But I thought our team at least woke up. In the first half, we looked sluggish, and the second half, we started to pull it (back).”

Ultimately, it came down to the penalty kicks, and Monroe will face Shorecrest in a loser-out consolation game on Tuesday to try to keep their season alive.

Shorewood, meanwhile, advances to the semifinals against No. 7 seed Oak Harbor on Tuesday, where it incidentally gets home-field advantage as the final two rounds of the tournament will take place at Shoreline Stadium.

It will be a rematch of last year’s district championship, where Oak Harbor won 3-0 on Nov. 9, 2024. This time, the Stormrays hope to get revenge.

“We lost a lot of people (who graduated) last year,” Lumbera said. “We’re ready to rebuild that same structure, and this is our final way we can do it.”