Once again, Laramie County played the villain to the Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team in the NJCAA District B Tournament.

Playing in districts for the second-straight year and the third time in five seasons, Shino Kunisawa’s header for a goal nearly seven minutes into the first overtime abruptly ended the third-ranked Lady Dragons’ season two victories short of the program’s first national tournament appearance.

Kunisawa’s goal gave 14th-ranked Laramie County a 2-1 victory in the District B semifinals, handing Hutchinson its first loss at the USD 308 Athletic Complex since 2007 (40 games).

“I’ll be the first to say it if we were outplayed, like I felt we were in the second half against Butler last week,” said HCC head coach Sammy Lane, referring to last week’s 1-0 Region VI championship game victory. “We were lucky, and we won. Today, we didn’t get lucky and we didn’t win. They get a goal, and the season is over.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to lose when you’re the better team, but we wish Laramie good luck in the finals.”

Laramie County (15-3-1) will now play Butler (8-3-1) for the district title at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the USD 308 Athletic Complex for a berth in the NJCAA National Tournament in two weeks.

In 2007, HCC was 38 seconds away from penalty kicks in the semifinals against Laramie County when the Golden Eagles scored to end the season. Last year, Laramie County scored a first-half goal in the District B championship game and made it stand for a 1-0 win.

On Saturday, the Jayhawk Conference champion and Region VI champion Lady Dragons found themselves down 1-0 at halftime after a first half that had two quality scoring chances go by the boards – one on a mad scramble in front of the goal on a corner kick and another on a breakaway attempt that LCCC goalkeeper Aissa Lopez made the save on.

Laramie County’s first shot on goal of the game resulted in a Junko Honda goal in the 26th minute.

“I feel like we weren’t playing as a team,” sophomore Madison Joyce said. “We were playing as individuals and not together.”

“The first half, we didn’t do anything,” added sophomore Alicia Robinson.

After a lackluster first half, the Lady Dragons returned to form in the second half and dominated play despite playing into a significant wind.

Hutchinson had two scoring chances early in the half. The first came when Robinson lofted a pass into the penalty box that bounced around but Lopez got to. The other came when Joyce had a breakaway and appeared to be hit from behind inside the penalty box, but no call was made.

Still trailing by a goal with less than 15 minutes to play, Hutchinson found the equalizer when freshman Melissa Hetherington ripped a low shot to the left corner of the goal to knot the score at 1-all with 11:41 to play in the second half.

HCC had two chances to net the go-ahead goal in the final 90 seconds of regulation. HCC missed on a scramble, just shooting wide right. Then as the final seconds were ticking down, Hetherington got a shot off that Lopez made the save on as the siren sounded.

“We dominated the game,” Lane said. “We created enough chances to score three or four goals.”

In overtime, possession was even, but as Laramie County was on the attack, HCC didn’t get a good defensive clear. LCCC’s Jezmine Ruiz lofted a pass into the box. HCC keeper Eunice Figueroa came out to challenge, but Kunisawa got there first with a header that floated into an empty goal for the game winner 6:52 into the first overtime.

“It was a dagger to our hearts,” Robinson said. “I thought it was going over.”

“I really felt this was the year we would win it,” Joyce said.

Hutchinson out-shot Laramie County 22-15 and 10-7 in shots on goal.

Lopez made nine saves for LCCC. Figueroa tied a career high with five save.

GAME NOTES – Hetherington’s goal was her team single-season record 36th of the season. … Laramie County out-shot Hutchinson 4-1 in overtime. … HCC is now 1-3 in District B games. … Hutchinson’s No. 3 national ranking in the final NJCAA poll matches a program best for a final poll, tying the 2010 team. … Officially, the 2011 Lady Dragon sophomores’ two-year record will be 38-2, but in actuality, this group produced 40 victories on the field. Two wins this season had to be forfeited. The HCC sophomores never lost a regular-season game or regional team on the field in two seasons. The only losses came in district tournament play. … Butler defeated No. 8 North Idaho 1-0 in the second semifinal on Saturday.