CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Utah Blitzz didn't want Saturday night's Pro Soccer League championship game to finish the same way their last visit to Charlotte did.
"This makes up for 2000," Blitzz forward Rich Breza said after Utah's 2-2 (5-4 penalty kicks) victory over the Charlotte Eagles in front of 3,034 fans at Waddell High.
The Blitzz, who won the title for the second time in four years, lost to Charlotte in the then-D3 Pro League semifinals here in 2000.
And midway through the second half, it looked like history was destined to repeat itself before an opportunistic goal by Breza turned the Blitzz around.
Trailing 2-0 in the 65th minute, the Blitzz used a quick restart off a throw-in to sneak behind the Charlotte defense. Breza headed the ball past Eagles goalkeeper Eric Pattison at the back post for Utah's first goal.
The energized Blitzz kept pushing players forward and tied the game with 11 minutes to play in regulation. Byron Carmichael lofted a bending shot from about 25 yards into the top left corner of the net, out of the reach of an out-of-position Pattison.
"We gambled some and it paid off," Blitzz coach Chris Agnello said.
"After we got behind, it really came down to one goal and it had to be from us. We kept finding a way to come back."
And near the end of the second scoreless 15-minute overtime, two more strategic moves by Agnello paid off. He replaced starting goalkeeper Chad Sackett with Luis Zamora, and inserted defender Adolfo Ovalle. Both have been keys to penalty kick success for the Blitzz this season.
"Luis is so quick and we knew we wanted to score on the first one, so we put (Ovalle) in," Agnello said.
Zamora stopped Charlotte's final two tries and Jason Boyce's booming 12-yard shot went by Pattison to seal the victory.
"I thought that once we got to penalty kicks, it was a lockup," Breza said.
But it took 120 minutes of intense soccer between the Eagles, the top offensive team in the PSL, and the defensive-minded Blitzz. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead on defender Josh Faro's first goal of the season in the 41st minute.
Faro, racing down the middle of the field, took Patrick Daka's no-look header flick and rolled a 25-yard shot just inside the far post past Utah goalkeeper Sackett, who was partially screened on the play.
And the Eagles appeared ready to put the game away after Daka gave them a 2-0 lead 14 minutes into the second half. Jacob Coggins headed the ball to Daka at the back post and Daka drilled a shot from eight yards out.
"We knew we just had to keep pushing," Agnello said. "In this situation, you don't want to sit back and defend and lose 1-0. You might as well try to win the game, even if you end up losing 6-0."
Agnello said the victory was the end of a "surreal" week.
"We were concerned about the hurricane, about the field, which turned out to be great, and about playing away from home," he said. "We were able to play through it all."
Breza, who is retiring from pro soccer, was named the championship game's most valuable player.