David Beckham, Abby Wambach … and now Katie Downing.

Setting foot on the pitch at Columbus Crew Stadium — the same field where some of her favorites have played — for the Division III state championship was almost good enough for the senior at Bishop Fenwick.

Almost.

“It was always my dream to play here. I love coming to the Crew and watching games,” Downing said following Fenwick’s 3-2 double-overtime win against Ontario for the program’s second high school soccer state title since 2008. “It’s all surreal that David Beckham and all these people have played here. It’s awesome.”

The Falcons were one win away from playing at Crew Stadium last year. A 3-2 overtime loss to Summit Country Day postponed those plans, but surprisingly for just one season. After losing 12 seniors and returning two starters, not much was expected from the Falcons. Well, expect from the Falcons themselves.

“Right after that loss against Summit, I was pretty devastated. I took it to heart because I’m still keeping in touch with those 12 seniors,” Downing said. “It still hurts. … Our chemistry came at the right time, we peaked at the right time. From Day 1 of the season (reaching state) was our goal. We got ‘em.”

Added senior teammate Meghan Blank: “I couldn’t even believe I was at Crew Stadium until I was here stepping on the field. It feels better than anything I could ever imagine.”

Going the distance: Fenwick wasn’t concerned by playing a few extra minutes Friday. In fact, the Falcons soared in overtime. They outshot Ontario 7-0 in the two extra sessions and three times had solid chances to end the game before Blank’s game-winner with 8:44 left in the second OT.

“I feel like once we went into overtime … our coaches make sure we’re in the best shape of our lives,” junior defender Amy Gilmore said. “I knew these girls were not going to stop for anything. We’re all exhausted right now, but we’ve been working all year to keep pushing, keep fighting to be able to go win like this.”

Repeat?: The tradition is building at Fenwick. The Falcons have reached state three of the past five seasons, with a pair of state titles. For her part, junior keeper Jenni Rossi isn’t looking ahead just yet. She’d prefer to savor this state title for a few more days at least.

“We’ll enjoy this for a little while and think about next year when the time comes,” Rossi said with a big grin. “We just had really good chemistry. We knew no one really thought we could make it to state, so that was our goal to almost prove everyone wrong.”