Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red’s Matt Loot takes a shot towards the goal in front of University’s Braden Bell during Wednesday’s OVAC Class 5A semifinal match at Harding Stadium.

STEUBENVILLE — Big Red were mere fingertips away from advancing to Saturday’s OVAC Championship more than once, however it was not meant to be.

No. 6 seed University, which upset No. 3 Brooke in the quarterfinals, survived a flurry of chances in both overtime periods from No. 1 seed Big Red and then prevailed in a shootout that took 10 rounds to decide a winner to instead be the ones headed to Wheeling Island Stadium on Saturday.

“It’s a game of inches and those inches were not our side (Wednesday),” Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said.

With the game technically going down as a tie on the official records, Big Red goes to 8-1-2 on the season, but will be playing a regular season match with Cambridge on Saturday instead of for a trophy.

“It’s disappointing, we put ourselves in a good spot all year to play in the championship, but we didn’t take care of business,” Bowers said. “We’ll keep plugging away, we have the district tournament to get ready for now.

“Hopefully being in a game like this helps us be ready for that.”

University got off to a fast start, taking a 1-0 lead on an Alex Moldonado goal in the 11th minute.

Big Red proceeded to get going, and started to get more and more chances as the match went on until Matt Loot connected with just under five minutes before halftime on an assist from Aiden Morales.

That goal came after University’s Connor Montgomery made a couple of big saves.

“We came out flat for whatever reason, but we played a lot better in the second half and had chances to finish it off,” Bowers said. “Credit to (University).

“We’ve got to come out ready to go and us not doing that is on me. They fought through it. We didn’t play our best soccer, I don’t think. We’re capable of better going forward.”

Montgomery made another big stop early in the second half near the 14-minute mark, then Big Red just missed on a set piece a couple minutes late.

JP Walsh made a big save at the other end to preserve the tie, then University fired a shot off the crossbar with a little more than 14 minutes to play.

Walsh and Montgomery each made big saves in the final two minutes as the teams pushed to decide it in regulation, then, with 1:50 to go in the first overtime, Montgomery made a fingertip save on Loot, then stopped a corner kick right after.

In the second OT, Montgomery made another diving save, then a Big Red shooter fired the rebound off the goal post.

University had a chance to win the shootout in the fifth round, but Daniel Kaddar missed the net, then Big Red had its own chance to advance but Hayden Hicks’ shot misfired high in the seventh round.

Eventually, in round 10, Montgomery stopped Nick Nurczyk to finally decide a winner.

University, which finished ninth in the 5A standings but got the No. 6 seed due to three teams in front of it being ineligible for the tournament, will face No. 2 seed Wheeling Park, who defeated Morgantown in the other semifinal, in the final on Saturday.