The Peters Township boys' soccer team was in a position it rarely found itself in during a 17-1-2 regular season trailing.

They were trailing Downingtown West, 1-0, late in the second half of the PIAA Class AAA title game. They had only come back from a deficit once this season and this was Peters' first trip to the state championship game in nine years, uncharted waters indeed.

And then the Indians started cashing in on the scoring chances they had been creating the entire game. Junior forward Nick Wilcox set up Mark Majoras first to keep the Indians' state title hopes alive with a goal with seven minutes to play in the game and then in sudden-death overtime, he helped set up a Shane Pruitt goal to give Peters Township its first state title since 1989.

"The kids had such a determination to win," Dyer said. "They kept battling and battling. Obviously teams have a great desire to win a state championship but it just seemed that we put that desire on the field more than they did."

The Indians had recent struggles in title games. They made it to three consecutive WPIAL championship games but never left with the gold, including this year.

On the ride back from Hershey some players never even took off their gold medals.

"Those kids were on cloud nine, they were still wearing their medals when they came off the bus," Dyer said. "They are proud of their accomplishment and they should be. They are the No. 1 team in the top classification in the state."

"That was the best game we played all season," Dyer said after watching a tape of the game twice. "Every kid played his best game of the season. They all saved it for the right time."

The state title "absolutely" took away a lot of the sting from the 1-0 loss to Bethel Park in the WPIAL title game, according to Dyer.

An earlier loss to Bethel Park was one of two eye-opening games Dyer pointed to after the season. After running out of the gate with six wins in a row, Peters ran into a Bethel Park buzzsaw and lost, 5-0, at home.

"The first Bethel game was a wakeup call. We learned what we had to do the rest of the season," Dyer said.

Practices started to take on a different sharper edge and Dyer made sure that not only did his team get back to basics, but also had to regain some emotion.

The other eye-opener came two weeks later in a Sunday night win against Shaler. The Indians jumped on Shaler, 4-0, and ended up winning 4-2. Shaler was ranked No. 4 by the Post-Gazette at the time.

"That was a tough battle and they were a good team," Dyer said of Shaler. "That was the best we had looked all season."

The last time the Indians enjoyed this kind of success, Dyer was on the field not on the sideline. Peters won Class AA state championships during Dyer's junior and senior years on the team.

"You don't realize what you have accomplished until later because you don't fathom it until five or six years later," Dyer said of winning the title as a player. "As a coach I know what these kids accomplished and the memories they will have the rest of their lives."