ALBUQUERQUE — Griffin Cullen?

It seemed appropriate that the St. Michael's High School junior's name came out more as a question than a statement. Defensive players are the seen-but-not-heard rocks that most soccer teams build a foundation around.

And so it was that even when Cullen's shining moment came calling, she was still a faceless name on a state championship team. Even within the St. Michael's circle.

"Griffin, did you score the last goal?" a St. Michael's fan asked her.

"Yeah," she said with a Grand Canyon-wide smile as she walked to her bags so she could join the revelry.

In one swing of her right leg, she sent a jolt of electricity into the crowd at the Albuquerque Public Schools Soccer Complex. For those wearing the blue-and-white, it was a spark of energy that started a Lady Horsemen celebration.

Anyone clad in powder blue-and-burgandy, the colors of top seed Albuquerque Sandia Prep, received a shock that will take nine months to get over.

Cullen put an end to 99 minutes of Class A-AAA championship girls soccer when her 25-yard shot off a corner-kick rebound curved past Lady Sun Devils goalkeeper Ryley Bennett and into the upper left of the net to give St. Michael's a 3-2 win.

It gave the No. 2 Lady Horsemen (16-7) their second state title in the last three years, while leaving Sandia Prep (16-5-1) wanting for the third straight championship match.

And asking one question.

Griffin Cullen?

She just happened to pick the perfect time to record her first goal of the season, but she knew something special would happen.

"She told me she dreamed last night she scored the winning goal," Lady Horsemen head coach Ed Velie said.

But then, he knew, too.

"Two days ago, I told her, 'We're going to be tied, and you're going to score the winning goal.' "

The two visions meshed when Jamie Palermo approached a corner kick in the final minute of the second overtime. Palermo set up the play when she plucked a loose ball from the Lady Sun Devils backfield, then turned and fired a shot to the left side of the goal that Bennett deflected out of bounds.

Palermo's corner kick bounded out of a scrum in the penalty box and toward Cullen.

Before the ball even reached her, Velie and assistant coach Jeff Saiz already were yelling for her to shoot. Cullen settled the ball and then fired the winner with no hesitation.

Cullen had been waiting all season long for a corner-kick play to develop that way, and she was in the same spot she always was.

"It seems like I am always in the same spot, but I never get it," Cullen said.

From 80 yards away, St. Michael's goalkeeper Sally Feldewert, who was a bundle of frayed nerves by that point but still had 15 saves, felt a calm she hadn't had all morning long.

"When she got the ball, I knew she had it," Feldewert said. "I just knew."

Until that point, Feldewert was unsure what was going to happen. She didn't even know that a third extra period would have resulted from a second-OT knot. In state championship play, four overtimes are played before a shootout ensues.

"Really? Four overtimes? Whoa!" Feldewert exclaimed.

Two was barely enough for her. Yet she handled herself with great aplomb in the face of the Lady Sun Devils aggressive attack. Feldewert stopped a point-blank shot in the first overtime from Maya Graeber, and then used all of her 5-foot-11 frame to prevent Savannah Davidson from scoring the golden goal three minutes into the second.

Davidson's first shot from 6 yards bounced off Feldewert's chest, then she kept kicking away as the Lady Horseman tried to pull the ball from her legs to her chest while on the ground.

"She kicked me in the ribs, like, four times!" Feldewert said.

"You know, you're not supposed to bang and bang, but they did," Velie replied, which was met with a round of laughter from Feldewert and Saiz.

The Lady Sun Devils were efficient at banging away, and their efforts met with success in the second half.

Davidson came in from the left flank, and then crossed in the penalty box to Julia Thompson, who one touched it to the left of Feldewert for a 1-1 knot in the 55th minute. It took 11 more minutes for Sandia Prep to find the back of the net again, and Davidson did all the work. Taking a midfield loose ball, she sprinted down the sideline with the Horsemen defense in tow, then faked out a charging Feldewert to find an open net for a 2-1 lead.

Suddenly, the season-long goal of hoisting a blue trophy was in peril.

"It was the worst feeling ever," junior defender Michelle Bustamante said. "It seemed like we worked all season for this, and we can't lose now."

Enter Palermo and redemption.

In the first half, Palermo had a penalty-kick opportunity after Bennett was called for a foul on a hard tackle of Lady Horsemen forward Kate Vadurro in the box. Her shot never touched iron as it sailed wide right.

After Lady Sun Devils midfielder Elizabeth Stebbins was called for a foul 30 yards from the goal in the 72nd minute, Palermo lofted a direct kick that went over Bennett's head and into the net for 2-all.

"It's all heart," Palermo said. "I told myself this is one the last chances. All I know I was
a little far out of the box and
I just put it on frame."

It was the shot in the arm St. Michael's needed.

Plus it gave a dream and a prophecy one more chance to materialize.

And anonymity will elude Cullen forever more.

Contact James Barron at jbarron@sfnewmexican.com or 986-3045. Read his blog at thereadbarron.com.