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Wiesbaden running back Chris Hobson is brought down by a group of Vilseck tacklers in Wiesbaden's 20-17 semifinal win Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany.

Wiesbaden running back Chris Hobson is brought down by a group of Vilseck tacklers in Wiesbaden's 20-17 semifinal win Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)

Wiesbaden running back Chris Hobson is brought down by a group of Vilseck tacklers in Wiesbaden's 20-17 semifinal win Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany.

Wiesbaden running back Chris Hobson is brought down by a group of Vilseck tacklers in Wiesbaden's 20-17 semifinal win Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)

Vilseck's Zavier Scott returns a kickoff into Wiesbaden coverage Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany. Wiesbaden won 20-17 in overtime.

Vilseck's Zavier Scott returns a kickoff into Wiesbaden coverage Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany. Wiesbaden won 20-17 in overtime. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)

Wiesbaden running back Caleb Brown runs in for a first-half touchdown in the Warriors' 20-17 overtime victory over the Vilseck Falcons on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany.

Wiesbaden running back Caleb Brown runs in for a first-half touchdown in the Warriors' 20-17 overtime victory over the Vilseck Falcons on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at Wiesbaden, Germany. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)

WIESBADEN, Germany -- They let a lot of opportunities to win Saturday’s DODEA-Europe Division I football semifinal slip away. But the Wiesbaden Warriors finally got the Chance they needed.

Wiesbaden junior Chance Arnoldussen powered into the end zone from 10 yards out in the second overtime session to give the host Warriors a 20-17 victory over the visiting Vilseck Falcons, and send the Warriors to a fourth straight Division I title game. Wiesbaden will take on Ramstein on Nov. 5 at Kaiserslautern High School.

Arnoldussen said he never entertained the notion that the Warriors might lose, even as the Falcons scored 14 unanswered points after halftime, forced overtime and took a lead in the extra session.

“I wasn’t worried at all,” said Arnoldussen, a newly arrived junior from Arizona. “I knew we were going to pull through.”

Arnoldussen approached the ultimately fateful handoff with similar confidence.

“I was just thinking this is it, it’s time for my team to shine.” he said. “I knew my boys would block for me.”

Warriors coach Steve Jewell, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction.

He said he became so preoccupied with his team’s squandered chances of putting the game away that he had to refocus on the still-active mission at hand.

“I started getting so upset about the missed opportunities we had, that I forgot that we still had a game left,” Jewell said. “If we stay together as a team, anything can happen.”

Arnoldussen’s run was the decisive moment in a game that seemed it might be unwilling to produce one.

Wiesbaden took a relatively comfortable 14-0 lead at halftime. Caleb Brown took a handoff and tossed a short pass to Dante Hurt in the end zone to break a scoreless tie, then Brown doubled the Warrior lead with a rushing touchdown. The Warrior defense, meanwhile, held firm, capping a shutout first half by snuffing out a Vilseck red zone opportunity with a gang sack on the final play before intermission.

But a beat-up Warrior team couldn’t put the game away in the second half, and the Falcons were happy to capitalize. Zavier Scott got the visitors on the board with a fourth-quarter rushing touchdown, and minutes later corralled a fourth-down throw from Chrystian Mitchell for a 62-yard tying score with just over two minutes to play.

The sputtering Warrior offense went nowhere on its ensuing possession. Vilseck looked to have a minute left to construct a game-winning drive as it lined up to field a punt, but a Falcon penalty for running into the kicker gave Wiesbaden a first down, costing Vilseck possession and its shot at a regulation win. The Warriors gratefully limped into overtime.

Both teams failed to find the end zone in the first round of overtime, which allotted each team four untimed downs from 10 yards away, and both came away scoreless when their field goal attempts were blocked.

The Falcons forced the issue to open the second round of overtime as Maks Cella bounced a kick off the left upright and in for a go-ahead field goal. But his heroics and Vilseck’s first lead of the game were quickly superseded by Arnoldussen’s game-winner.

After a lackluster first half, Vilseck coach Jim Hall challenged his team to display the attributes that earned it a winning season and a semifinal berth in the first place.

“We told them at halftime, ‘The score shows you don’t belong here. Prove to the rest of the world that you do,’” Hall said. “They played with all their hearts the second half and overtime.”

By the end, the Falcons had the Warriors thoroughly convinced.

“Vilseck’s known for being hard hitters, and they’re hard hitters,” Jewell said. “Give credit to them, they never quit."

Brown led Wiesbaden with 71 yards on 12 carries, while Chris Hobson gathered 50 rushing yards and Josh Theodore added 43. Arnoldussen paced the defense with 10 tackles, supported by nine tackles from Ryan Foote.

Scott produced a game-high 136 yards on 18 carries for the Falcons, while Cameron Downs collected 123 yards on 19 carries. Juan Oestriech and Timothy Simmons had 10 tackles apiece for Vilseck.

Saturday’s semifinal finally settled an unusual situation between the two teams. Vilseck beat Wiesbaden 14-7 in their lone regular-season meeting Oct. 15. But when the Falcons, Warriors, and Lakenheath Lancers ended the regular season tied at 3-2, it was the Warriors that came ahead in the tiebreaker math, securing the division’s second seed and the right to host the semifinal rematch.

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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