“We came here ready to win,” New Ulm junior forward Levi Johnson said. “We prepared for a long time, and we played hard. Even though they scored a goal against us in the first half, we picked it up and scored two and took home the W.”

Jackson Ocampo got to play the hero for the Eagles, not only tying up the game with a score after a shot put on goal by Johnson, but also taking the lead with four minutes to play on a penalty kick.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” Ocampo said. “Watching my brothers go out early, watching even myself go out early every single year in the first year, and now being able to do it with my best friends, being able to get to the state tournament means everything. So much emotion night now. It’s a crazy feeling.”

Ocampo said it was everything he wished for to be able to score the two goals to send his team to state.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Jackson Ocampo takes what ended up being the game-winning penalty kick late in the second half of the Section 2AA Boys Soccer Tournament title game against Worthington at New Prague High School Tuesday.

“It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make the big play and be there for my team. I don’t want to be the guy that misses out and doesn’t do anything the whole game, so my mission is to make the impact that I can every single time no matter what it takes.”

It was the first section championship game played by the New Ulm boys team, and they were able to convert it into a state tournament appearance.

“We’re a great team,” Johnson said. “We’re the best New Ulm has ever had. It’s amazing.”

New Ulm senior defenseman Cole Frederick said it was incredible to be the first state soccer team for New Ulm.

“It’s history,” Frederick said. “It’s everything we’ve ever wanted. All these boys playing since we we’ve been young in club league. To go down in history books is one of the most amazing things, not only just as a player but as a team is what means the most.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Methodious Amoah, left, battles for the ball during the Section 2AA Boys Soccer Tournament title game against Worthington at New Prague High School Tuesday.

“It means everything to us,” Ocampo added. “We talked about it, we were always saying this is our year, we need to do it for everyone. We deserve the number one seed and everything like that.”

New Ulm head coach Tim Plocher said that he believed his team could get to this point since a season ago.

“I believed in them since last year,” he said. “I have the same team that I did last year roughly, we lost two players, but I knew going into this season that we were going to be contenders, and not only contenders for the conference but for the section. And we got it. Training the boys, they’ve been playing together for so long and they put their heart into it.

“Worthington is our soccer rivals historically, they beat us eight years in a row, and since I’ve started coaching, we haven’t lost to them yet. That’s three times now, so hope to keep that streak going for a few more years.”

It was the latest in a series of tenacious wins for New Ulm in the section tournament, as the Eagles defeated Mankato West in overtime in the first round before coming back from down 2-0 to win 3-2 at Westonka in the semifinals.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Levi Johnson (9) goes after the ball during the Section 2AA Boys Soccer Tournament championship game against Worthington at New Prague High School Tuesday.

“When we go behind, they don’t put their heads down,” Plocher said. “We’re not going to panic, we can do this, we can win this game and we need to do what it takes to win this game. Looking at the Mound [Westonka] game, they scored two goals back-to-back, we made mistakes, and Jackson led the team into the rally to come back, and we played with heart.

“Today too, just being so locked in — my defense is just so good. Josh [Shaneman], Tyler [Fischer], Teagan [Kral] and Cole especially, they just prevent anything from happening. Without them, Austin [Krohn, New Ulm goalkeeper] would have to do a lot more work, so I appreciate how much they take off of his shoulders. Obviously one squeaked in, the wet field, it will happen. I talked to them at halftime and said that kind of thing is going to happen. We’ve just got to be prepared to counter-attack for when it happens to them.”

New Ulm found itself down 1-0 after the first half after Worthington’s Elder Lopez capitalized on the slippery weather with a goal that slid out of Krohn’s gloves in the 30th minute. But the Eagles continued to show heart, keeping their heads up.

“There’s always a little luck involved, but just the determination,” Frederick said. “Going down and lifting our team up. There’s always unlucky misses and mistakes that we can work on, but overall it’s the team aspect that helped us come back from being down and the overall determination of each and every player either coming off the bench and putting in 100% effort or even playing the whole game. Just 100 percent effort all the way and pushing our bodies past the limits that we knew.”

Ocampo’s first goal came just four minutes into the second half as Levi Johnson got past the Trojans defense and put a shot on goal, leaving Ocampo to clean up the rebound.

“I’m looking for that opportunity,” Johnson said. “I think it was Jackson that was the one to pass it to me. Ran towards it, the goalie came out, and I took it. Jackson ran up and had the finish. Great goal, and I’m glad that I got the assist that started it off.”

New Ulm continued to put pressure, getting several good chances in the second half. With 4:25 left in the game, a Worthington defender grabbed hold of Ocampo as he lined up a shot in the goalie box, earning a yellow card and a penalty kick for Ocampo. Ocampo made the shot, putting his team up 2-1.

Worthington put up a fight down the stretch, earning a dangerous corner kick with under a minute to play, but the final threat was cleared by Kral and the Eagles held on for the victory.

“I’m so happy,” Frederick said. “I love all these guys. We put 100% effort into every game. We’ve had our ups and downs, starting off the year 13-0, we plateaued and started going down, but the boys locked in in practice every day. You could see that the last two games … we put in as much effort as we could. Even today coming down from one unlucky goal, all the boys locked in and put in effort, and you could see the product of what we’ve worked for all these years.”

New Ulm awaits seeding for its matchup in the state tournament.

“This is our last year with our seniors,” Johnson said. “Jackson, Cole, tons of others, Daniel [Brownfield], and we want to win. This is our year to win, and we’re going to go do that.”