Yoogali SC 3

Hanwood Juniors 4

THE AA women's soccer preliminary final was always going to be a close call.

So it was hardly surprising when the Sunday match between Yoogali SC and Hanwood Juniors came down to a nail-biting penalty shootout.

Hanwood Juniors eventually pulled out all stops to secure a 4-3 win, but the road to victory wasn't an easy one.

After leading 1-0 for most of the match, Hanwood's slick players were unsettled by an epic Yoogali goal in the final 10 seconds, which pushed the game into extra time.

Hanwood coach Matt Bugno watched the closing seconds with white knuckles.

"After Yoogali scored that goal in the final 10 seconds, we had to quickly start reassessing how we were going to play in extra time," he said.

But after a further 20 minutes of desperate play from both teams failed to determine a winner, the game went to a penalty shootout.

Yoogali coach Grant Davidson was philosophical about the loss, which ended his team's finals campaign.

"They played better in the first half, and we were chasing the game after that," he said.

"We won last week on penalty shootouts and they won this week, so it was anyone's game really."

Bugno was hard-pressed to name a stand-out player for Hanwood, rather declaring the victory a team effort.

"Everyone just dug in today, we kept the ball on the ground and our passing was great," he said.

Hanwood now turns its attention to next week's grand final stoush against North Exies.

"We won't be doing anything different in training this week ? we'll be taking it as it comes," Bugno said.