Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. JFK’s Nick Ryan (14) tries to shake off a challenge from United’s Cayden Pitts (13) during Saturday’s district final.

CANFIELD — Heading into the playoffs, Warren JFK felt disrespected.

With a record of 9-9-2, the Eagles were tabbed as the No. 23 seed, which meant they had to navigate a long, treacherous road to get to the district final.

But with that chip on its shoulder, JFK fought — it fought through Crestview, Campbell, Bristol and United until the bitter end, as the Eagles’ run was finally cut short on Saturday in a heartbreaking 4-3 double-overtime defeat to the top-seeded Golden Eagles in the Division V, Northeast 1 district championship.

“It was a tough one,” JFK coach Anthony Ledenko said. “Coming into the game, nobody thought we’d do anything. We had kind of an up-and-down season, and we didn’t really feel like we were respected going into the playoffs. But being able to stand up to the No. 1 seed in the region — No. 23 seed vs. No. 1 seed — being able to take them to overtime, is just a testament to this group’s character.”

United pounded on the Eagles early, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes.

Maddox Andrea put the Golden Eagles on the board in the third minute off a long ball that was misplayed by Kennedy goalkeeper Matt Wagner. Then United struck again five minutes later when Jude Andrea bolted past the Eagles’ defense on a counterattack.

“It was definitely the punch in the face that we needed — the metaphorical punch in the face just so that we could get going,” Ledenko said of the early deficit. “With these seniors especially, this is a special group for me. (It was needed) for them to finally just be like, yeah, it’s time to play the district final.”

If JFK was going to come back, it needed its best players to step up, and that they did.

Dom Ryan nailed a 35-yard free kick in the 23rd minute to finally get the Eagles on the board.

However, with a fiercely quick attack capable of scoring in the blink of an eye, United put its lead back to two before halftime when a shot bounced off Wagner and a JFK defender for an own goal.

The Eagles trailed 3-1 at the break, but they weren’t done yet.

JFK cut into United’s lead again four minutes into the second half when Gio Femia took advantage of a loose ball in the penalty box that was mishandled by United’s goalkeeper and put it in the back of the net.

At that point, the Eagles had the momentum back and they pushed for an equalizer.

Nick Ryan finally tied the match at 3 in the 51st minute with an acrobatic lob shot over a defender and the goalkeeper that dropped in at the far post.

Most of the final 20 minutes of regulation was spent in United’s attacking half, as the Golden Eagles pressed for a game-winner. But after 80 minutes, extra time was needed to determine a winner.

Both teams had an array of chances in the first extra time period, but no one could break through.

“We obviously wanted to win it,” Ledenko said. “We tried to get up the side, and we had the wind at our backs. But we just wanted to keep doing what we were doing through the full game.”

The back-and-forth play continued into the second extra time period, but United’s Jase Medure scored a golden goal winner for the Golden Eagles with three minutes left in the final extra time period.

The Eagles finish the season as district runner-up and will graduate eight seniors from this year’s roster.

“We played some big schools this year,” Ledenko said. “We played huge schools for a school our size. As we got through the season, we gave up a lot of goals in a lot of games, but we (played those teams) on purpose so that we would get here. The goal was to play district-level teams every single game to get prepared, and I think we were prepared. Sudden death is always tough, but I couldn’t be more proud of the boys.”