Around 2:33 p.m. the scoreboard inside of Bill Ball Stadium at Exeter High School showed 5:00 minutes remained as Pembroke clung to its 1-0 lead over Bow in the Division II girls soccer state championship.
Members of the Spartans were doing everything they could to secure what would’ve been the first girls soccer championship in school history. The Falcons were attempting to find any sort of offensive resolve to avoid a loss to Pembroke.
About six minutes later, fans clad in Pembroke green and white were yelling at the officials to blow the whistle to end the game; those in Bow blue and yellow were cheering for a goal.
Then, a full 13 minutes after the clock seemed to indicate five minutes were left in the championship game, Bow netted a goal and tied the game, effectively sending it into overtime.
How could one team score 13 minutes after five minutes were left? Shouldn’t the game have ended?
Two days ago, crowds of fans and myself were wondering the same thing.
It was starting to look like a sure thing the Spartans would be the winners after they scored their goal 51 minutes into the game to go ahead 1-0, while the clock on the scoreboard continued to shrink.
But, it turns out that clock was unofficial.
After a 2-1 overtime loss, Pembroke parents wanted an explanation.
Here it is: The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association bylaws for soccer states that the official time is kept on the field by the official closest to the team benches.
Put another way, the official game time is kept by the referees, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
Confusion about the extra eight minutes erupted between both fan bases who took to social media to build their case. Someone even made a PDF detailing the time elapsed in the second half, including injury timeouts, based on the broadcast time from the live stream.
“The bottom line is, the official time of the games are kept on the field with the head official,” NHIAA executive director Jeff Collins said. “I don’t know what transpired in the booth and why the game clock wasn’t synced up with the game watch.”
By Monday morning, Collins was already well aware of the timing issue, and said the result will stand.
“The NHIAA doesn’t look at video or anything like that,” Collins said. “I know it sounds like a broken record, but the game officials are the ones that manage the game and they manage the clock.”
This game won’t be replayed. There is no correction to be made. But for some, there will be an asterisks by the final score, which is unfortunate for both teams.
Ultimately what matters most are those kids who played the game. Both programs enjoyed heaps of success this season and it was all done by the girls who, day in and day out, played the game they love.
A long season has now been put to rest, and the rivalry between these two teams will only continue to grow. But at the end of the day, both of these teams deserve congratulations for playing their hardest at the highest level with the game on the line. They left it all out there.