By MATT SCHUCKMAN
Herald-Whig Sports Writer

LEBANON, Ill. -- All the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer players wanted was an explanation, one they either wouldn't or couldn't get.

Without it, bitterness lingered after Thursday night's 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Belleville Althoff in the semifinals of the Class 2A Troy Triad Sectional in which there was a dispute whether the Crusaders' game-winning goal actually went in.

"There are just no words," QND keeper Megan Rabe said.

Only tears and anger.

"You know they are going to be bitter for a while," QND coach Mark Longo said. "There's not much you can do about it. You sit here and you played one of the best teams in the state and you were probably the better team and you get screwed on two calls. Now, your season is over."

With less than three minutes remaining in the third overtime at McKendree University's Leemon Field, Althoff forward Megan Pawloski launched a throw-in from the right sideline that carried into the box, bounced and was headed toward the right post by Kelsey Dinges.

Rabe made the initial save and was attempting to cover the rebound when Althoff forward Megan Jaskowiak twice kicked the ball out of Rabe's hands.

The linesman ruled Jaskowiak's second attempt was in the net only after signaling with his flag to the corner as if to award Althoff a corner kick. The referee and linesman conferred before awarding Althoff the goal and the victory.

Asked for an explanation after the game, the three officials walked out of stadium together, one of them saying only, "We are not supposed to talk to the media."

They didn't offer much more of an explanation to QND's coaching staff.

"They said Megan didn't have the ball," Longo said.

The Lady Raiders (20-2) dispute that.

"It was in Megan's left hand, right on the post, and that's when the ref said it was in," QND defender Jamie Pyatt said.

Rabe said the ball never crossed the goal line.

"What happened is I had the ball and it got kicked out of my hand," the junior keeper said. "So I grabbed it again and again it got kicked out of my hands. Then, I grabbed it again ... but it was not in. It shouldn't have been kicked out of my hands in the first place."

Jaskowiak, though, said she was battling for possession and knocked the ball in on the second attempt.

"It went in the side netting," Jaskowiak said after the Crusaders (22-2-2) advanced to face Carbondale in Saturday's sectional final. "Their goalie tried to like grab it out. It was in the side net. The net moved all the way to the post. The linesman happened to be in position, thank God, to call it. It was in the goal.

"I am positive. That was a goal. Trust my word."

It was the end a frustrating sequence for QND.

Minutes earlier, QND junior forward Alex Reis was ruled offsides when a pass was played over the top of Althoff's defense, springing Reis for what would have been a one-on-one with keeper Madeline Nesbit.

"We got screwed, plain and simple," Longo said.

QND had chances to put the game away earlier.

A nip-and-tuck game changed when Jaskowiak headed in a Megan Pawloski throw-in for a 1-0 Althoff lead with 3:54 remaining in regulation. Just 47 seconds later, QND's Leigh McLaughlin took a feed from Reis, beat three defenders into the penalty area and blistered a rising shot into the upper half of the net to tie the game.

She wasn't done. With 2:14 to play, McLaughlin beat Althoff's defense 40 yards from the goal and would have had a one-on-one situation with the keeper. However, Althoff sweeper Maureen Nesbit grabbed McLaughlin by the jersey to thwart the breakaway.

Nesbit received a red card and automatic ejection, and although QND played the rest of the half and the overtimes with a man advantage, it never tilted the field in the Lady Raiders' favor.

"If she wouldn't have made that foul, that game probably would have been over," Jaskowiak said. "It was a smart, professional foul. She pretty much saved the game for us with that foul."

QND had a chance to win the game in the first overtime as a ball played through the box drew Madeline Nesbit off her line and out of the net. Staring at an open goal, QND freshman forward Shannon Foley hurriedly tried to redirect the pass, pushing it just wide of the left post.

"Things just don't go our way," Longo said. "It's very disappointing."

-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366

Click here for an account of the game from the Belleville News-Democrat.