Do you believe in miracles?

The Pioneers do. The Celtics do, too. In fact, so do the coaches, trainers, officials, fans and everyone else who witnessed Tuesday’s Division I boys’ soccer regional semifinal between Olentangy Orange and Dublin Jerome — a thriller Orange won 3-2 in overtime.

The Pioneers trailed virtually the entire game. The Celtics went up 1-0 in the first six minutes of action. Colton Bloecher tied the game with 19:36 to go in the opening half, but the Celtics, thanks to Scot Ziolo, went back on top, 2-1, less than four minutes later.

And that’s how things stayed until … well, until the final two seconds of the game.

Down by the single score, Orange watched the second half melt away until the final frantic seconds when, with just two ticks to play, Aaron Horton hammered home the equalizer after Jerome keeper Mitch Wozniak mishandled a desperate shot just moments earlier.

Wozniak punched the ball in the air and Horton, darting in from about five yards away, knocked the ball into the back of the net after watching it bounce right in front of him.

“I was just trying to get the ball in the goal anyway possible,” the senior forward said. “I didn’t care how, foot, head, whatever. I just wanted to get a piece of it.”

What he didn’t want to do, though — something he disagrees with — is pick up a red card for what the official called “taunting.”

After the score, Horton took off his jersey, soared down the sidelines with his arms spread out to his sides and waited for a wave of teammates to catch up and congratulate him.

“I think it was a bad call, for sure,” Horton said. “I didn’t say a single word to any of the opposing players. You can look at the tape, whatever you need to do, I didn’t taunt them.”

But because the official said he did, he was forced to sit out the overtime session and won’t be able to play in either of the squad’s next two games. He’ll be eligible to play in the state title game if the Pioneers make it that far.

After the excitement died down a bit, the squads hit the field for what was the first, and as it turns out only, overtime session of the game.

The teams traded scoring opportunities early. Jerome’s Jeff Addis sent a free kick just wide of the Orange goal about five minutes in and Orange’s Taylor Rieger sent a pair of mid-range shots over the Jerome goal minutes later. The Pioneers had three corner kicks in the span of a minute that they couldn’t convert into a goal, either.

Then, with 3:01 to play in OT, Jesus Villarroel collected a pass on the left side of the field, one-touched a crisp pass to a streaking Walter Ford, who beat his defender and the Jerome keeper to end what was one of the wildest games the team’s ever been a part of.

“I’ve been around soccer for quite a few years and that was the craziest game I’ve ever seen,” Orange coach Scott Bryant said.

The way his team handled the pressure of playing from behind impressed him most.

“Just being down, short of the Gahanna game earlier this season, this is the first time we’ve been down all season,” he said. “It was nice to see how the guys handled adversity.”

Speaking of Gahanna, the one team to beat Orange this season, it won its regional semifinal against Hilliard Davidson 2-1. The Lions’ win was also in overtime, setting up another showdown with the Pioneers, this time with a regional title on the line, Saturday at 3 p.m.

sports@delgazette.com