Was thinking the same thing…who told her to do that??

These teams are D2. There are 3 divisions in both boys and girls, based on the size of the male or female populations of the school (I think they adjust divisions every two years). They also do a very rudimentary "competitive balance" pass that adjusts those numbers slightly based on how many players on the team come from outside the district. So schools that allow open-enrollment, and private schools, sometimes (rarely) get bumped up a division. Strongsville and Medina are D1, based on being much larger schools, so unfortunately do not play these teams in the tournament, but do sometimes in the regular season (Medina beat Bay this year). Copley right now is actually D2 for girls (where they won state last year), but D1 for boys (where they are also very competitive) so they are one of the schools that rides right on the dividing line between divisions. Unfortunately this very often leads to early round playoff games that are complete blow-outs, since every team makes the playoffs in Ohio. This year for the playoffs they instituted an 8-goal-difference mercy rule once the game reaches the second half, which has resulted in many games ending 8-0 as soon as the halftime whistle blows. Shouldn't see any more of those now that we are moving into the regional phase (Sweet 16 for the state). And to your original point, I hate the golden goal. Not sure why (or when) they instituted it, when I played back in the dark ages of the late 90s they still did the full 2-period overtime. It obviously results in some very exciting game-ending goals, but I would also like to see the other team throw everything they have trying to get an equalizer for whatever time remains, that is exciting to me as well.