It was getting to the point where the Swope Park Rangers’ manpower was looking more like the club was prepping for a small-sided game during Sunday’s Western Conference Semifinal against Orange County Blues FC.

Down to nine men following the sending off of outside backs Ever Alvarado and Tommy Meyer, and tied 1-1 toward the end of regulation, it would have been impressive enough if Swope was capable of simply getting the match to a penalty shootout.

Thanks to a stout defense and a moment of ingenuity from striker Dane Kelly, the Rangers did one better as the USL all-time goal-scoring leader tallied a 105th-minute winner to lead the side to a 2-1 victory and a spot in the Western Conference Final in the 2016 USL Cup Playoffs.

“I don’t remember a game like this,” Swope Head Coach Marc Dos Santos said. “You have to have a spirit out of this world, an energy out of this world and a commitment out of this world.”

Kelly was a second-half sub for Mark Anthony Gonzalez, who had scored the game’s opening goal and now has three during this year’s postseason. The veteran Jamaican striker received a pass from Nansel Selbol toward the end of the first 15-minute overtime, and with chances understandably hard to come by with the lack of numbers, Kelly took a crack at the goal and capitalized to take a 2-1 lead.

“We’ve been through so much this season and we’ve still stuck together as a team,” Kelly said. “That is what got us into the [conference] finals. One thing about this team is we definitely have confidence in each other. We believe in each other. There was a lot of emotion.”

“We felt that we could’ve won with two lines of four defending, but we felt Kelly had something,” Dos Santos said. “That’s why we have two forwards like Mark and Dane. It shows again, nobody is bigger than the team. One day Mark is going to be the different, the other day Kelly, [another] day someone else.”

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While Kelly gained the acclaim, the entire Swope squad had to defend throughout this stretch. Center back Oumar Ballo was an impressive force throughout the night. Captain Christian Duke covered some massive ground both in defense and even shorthanded in the attack on occasion.

“We were a little busy. It was a lot of fun,” Ballo said. “We went down to nine men, and we had to put the work in to finish it out. Credit to everyone who defended and for our team sticking together and believing in each other.”

“You have to play 40 minutes of 11-v-9 and it’s very, very difficult to do at any level,” Dos Santos said. “We were incredible, especially the spirit we showed defending. The guys had a big belief. They knew that it wasn’t impossible. We said we needed to play one ball, just one ball to Dane or Nansel, and Dane got it.”

Swope will now host sixth-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in the Western Conference Final on Saturday, and it will be a tough feat to match the drama and fight that unfolded this past weekend.

“It would be a day that everyone in the stadium would remember,” Dos Santos said. “I don’t think many people that were here today are going to forget the spirit of these guys.”