I want to preface this by saying that I don't have a dog in this fight. I got there early to get a seat for the Clover/RB game and since the games were so far behind, I got to watch most of this game.
As for the 70 mins or so that I got to watch, it was a really great game to watch. Both sides had opportunities, I felt Mann should have netted a couple of their shots they had. It also appeared as the match went on that Lexington wore Mann down, there were a few Mann players that were dealing with cramps. I believe this may have played a role in the outcome also.
As for the officiating....I didn't really have a problem with the majority of the calls/no calls. There is a case to be made for the foul in the box in OT, but that is also a tough call from where the center is. It's always tough to tell the angle an official has with 22 players on the field, I assume it's pretty easy to get screened and unable to view play at all times.
As for the golden goal...From where I was seating, I obviously couldn't tell at the time that it had crossed the line (I believe we can all agree now, that it was in fact a goal). But, I could tell from the AR's immediate reaction that he believed it was a goal. He immediately made a bee line up the field to signal a goal. That's probably a very tough call to make and I don't believe he's getting enough credit for calling that goal correctly. (Can you imagine the reaction if he hadn't called it and then the video came out later showing it was good?). There has been some discussion that he should have raised his flag first and then ran up the field. I, personally, believe that this action may have added some confusion. Mann might have believed he was calling offsides and then changed his mind once he talked to the center ref.
All in all a great game to watch (much better to watch than the game I actually went to watch) and congrats to both teams on a great season.
One more thing, the Mann coach may owe the Lexington girls and officials an apology. Maybe it was the heat of the moment of the loss (similar to Cam Newton after the Super Bowl), but he probably should have took a few minutes to calm down before giving that interview. I've never had any interaction with him, so I hope it was just a slight judgement error and that he usually is a great coach and example to his girls.
