MUNHALL — Steel Valley boys soccer coach John Strom had hoped the week off between games would not have an adverse affect on his team.

He thought about the Pittsburgh Steelers recent bye week and a follow-up loss against the Denver Broncos.

"Up to that bye week, they had been outstanding," said Strom, whose team entered Wednesday's WPIALquarterfinal playoff game against Knoch with a 17-0-2 record and the No. 1 seed.

"It hurt us early. We were a bit slow to everything," said Strom. "For two months, you're almost used to playing a game or two a week."

The Ironmen trailed 3-1, but rallied for two goals over the final 16:05 in regulation, and when Zak Campbell lined a header past Knoch goalie Steve Frey with 5:51 left in the second overtime, Steel Valley grabbed a 4-3 victory at Campbell Field.

"We just needed to get one goal to get rolling," said Strom. "We put ourselves in a big hole in the first half. I told the kids at the half that you can't get overly upset at yourselves.

"It's been our tendency to start slow. We've never been down by two goals in the second half all year,"he added.

The turning point in the game came with 16:05 left in regulation. Knoch (14-4-4) was seemingly in control before the Ironmen were awarded a controversial penalty kick, which Campbell buried past a diving Frey to make it a 3-2 contest.

"Unfortunately, we missed a couple of opportunities to put the game away," said Knoch coach Doug Wood. "That's not what changed the game. The penalty kick changed the game."

Only moments before the goal, the Knights' Buddy Carr had broken free in front of the net, but Steel Valley goalie Josh Joll made a huge save.

Almost seven minutes after the penalty kick, Joll came up big again, this time with a point-blank save on a shot by Doug Vogus.

Frey made a diving save on a second consecutive corner kick from the Ironmen, that coming with 6:04 remaining in regulation, but Steel Valley tied the game when Kyle Thomas' kick from the midfield sideline was headed into the goal by Drew Hruska with 2:32 remaining.

Both teams had a couple of chances in the first 15-minute overtime period. In the second overtime period, Frey made three saves until Campbell came up with the big play.

"It's part of what we do," said Strom. "Kyle Thomas has a big throw in and we like to get some momentum on the ball. It's well organized."

The turn of events soured what the Knights had done throughout the game, which had been controlling the tempo.

Thomas had given the Ironmen a 1-0 lead 3:33 into the game, but the Knights answered when C.J. Wise tapped a bouncing ball past Joll, then fired a shot to tie the game with 17:25 left in the first half.

Kevin Wood gave Knoch the lead when he scored with 6:07 before the break and Buddy Carr made it 3-1 with 35:46 left in regulation when he split a pair of defenders in front of the net to score.

"We were the better team," said coach Wood. "Their game was to knock the long ball over our defenders and we stopped that. Coming back from one down and scoring three times is a testament of how good (our) team is."

Notes: Frey and Joll made nine saves apiece. ... The Ironmen had won the Section 5-AA race. Eight of their starting 11 players are seniors.