But try telling that to senior goalkeeper Molly Bojanek and her Williamsville East teammates. They were the ones partying like it was 1999, while GI's girls were the ones in tears after Tuesday's Class A final at Amherst High School's Dimp Wagner Alumni Field ended in a scoreless draw.

Williamsville East and Grand Island shared the sectional title, but the Flames advanced to the Far West Regionals by winning the penalty-kick shootout, 3-2, before an estimated 600 fans. Will East will play Section V's Victor at 6 p.m. Saturday at Irondequoit.

Bojanek, an All-Western New York first team keeper selection last year, made three saves during the shootout to help the Flames get the better of GI for a change. Grand Island has won at least a share of the sectional title each year since 2000 and had beaten Will East the past two seasons to advance to the state playoffs.

But this time was different.

While GI's speed and savvy slowed down the Flames, who came into the game ranked first in the state and sixth nationally - Williamsville East wasted little time setting the tone during the shootout.

Bojanek made a nice save on Jessica Kuehne to open things. Then Rachel Piemonte scored on the Flames' first chance. Neha Bakhai and Aleks Quenneville scored during the shootout for Will East (17-0-1) against freshman keeper Kristin Wegrzyn - who came into the game during the second half for junior starter Allie Weiser, who was woozy after taking a blow to the head. Alicia Barnaby and Ashley Mazurkiewicz scored for GI (19-1-1).

"The pressure is on the shooter [during penalty kicks]," Bojanek said. "If I save them, great. The goalkeeper isn't supposed to make the save."

But Bojanek did, successfully reading GI shooters thrice to give the Vikings a deja vu moment. The last time GI won the sectional title and failed to advance to regionals was in 2000, when it lost the shootout - also against Will East - to determine the section's representative in the state tournament.

"The key for us was [Molly] stopping the first one. That set the tone for us," said winning coach Chris Durr, whose Flames won their first sectional title since 2002.

"We thought about Grand Island every day. They were the team we had to beat to prove ourselves," said Bojanek, who finished with 12 saves. "Either team could have won that game."

"It's unfortunate that it's a team game that ends with pressure on the individual," GI coach Dave Bowman said. "If they're the sixth-ranked team nationally then where are we?"

Each team came into the game with stingy defenses as Will East has yielded just five goals while GI surrendered nine. Both teams denied each other what seemed to be sure goals during regulation with Will East's Christa Morgante knocking away a ball before it crossed the goal line in the first half, while GI's Alicia Fisher returned the favor in the second half.