SWANSBORO - Matches decided on penalty kicks don't rate very high in the minds of most soccer players and coaches. Too much luck involved, they all say.

But when PKs get you to a state championship match, as they did for Cardinal Gibbons on Wednesday night against Swansboro, they'll serve the purpose just fine.

The Crusaders (24-2-2) topped the Pirates 2-1 in the second round of penalty kicks when senior Mark Piegore's hard, eye-level shot eluded Swansboro keeper Caleb Conrad, giving Gibbons another state-final berth.

Defending 2-A champion Gibbons will play in a state championship match Friday or Saturday at the WRAL Soccer Center.

"It was such a great game, you hate it to come down to penalty kicks," Crusaders coach Tim Healy said. "It's not fair to either team, the winner or the loser. It's a flip of the coin."

But Gibbons prepared for just the scenario that unfolded, ending each of its two practice sessions this week with penalty kick drills.

Despite controlling most of the flow of play for the first 60 minutes, the Crusaders found themselves in a 1-0 hole. Swansboro's Brandon Causey started a short corner play that ended with him setting up Jason Morton's one-timer in the 50th minute.

Twelve minutes later, Gibbons senior Morgan Fleming got the chance to extend his final season for one more game.

"At that point, we were down 1-0 and, as a senior, I didn't want to have our season end that way," Fleming said. "I just had the ball come to me at the top of the 18 and tried to hit it low and hard."

Teammate Seph Babington made a fake attempt to redirect Fleming's shot from about 18 yards out, which crossed up Conrad and allowed the score to be tied at 1-1.

In the first round of PKs, Gibbons got goals from Patrick Donahue, Fleming, Robert Liberatore and Daniel Del Rosario.

The second round of kicks was played under a sudden death format with a winner determined after one team gained an advantage after an exchange of kicks. Swansboro's Nick Thaxton tried to cross Gibbons' senior goalie Matt Shaefer up, chipping the ball high after Shaefer had committed to diving to the right of the goal. But the shot went just high, clanging off of the crossbar and back in Thaxton's direction.

Piegore followed with the game-winner.

"With kids you never know; nothing's going to be 100 percent," Healy said of PKs. "I just wanted to try to put the result in the hands of our seniors as much as I could. I had two in the first round and one leading off the second round."

Cardinal Gibbons 2, Swansboro 1 (Cardinal Gibbons won on penalty kicks)