I'm with you Aaron Horton.

What happened to you was not right.

There were only 2.2 seconds left in your season. Your team, the Olentangy Orange High School soccer team for those who don't know, was going down for sure.

Somehow you put one in the back of the net before time expired.

Amazing.

I didn't see it. I was told about it, which is all too often the case in high school sports, but I still feel comfortable using certain words to describe the sight unseen. No question, it was pure magic.

It's arguably the single best play of 2009. And it's been a long year. And I've seen -- or heard of -- a lot of plays.

The one where Northland's Jared Sullinger was fouled on a 3-point attempt and then hit three free throws to beat Cincinnati Princeton 60-58 for the Division I state basketball championship last year comes to mind. I was there for that one.

Your play was better than that.

Nobody can blame you for the celebration that followed the tying goal.

Let's fill in everyone else.

Horton scored a goal with 2.2 seconds left that tied Orange and Dublin Jerome at 2 at the end of regulation in a Division I regional semifinal Nov. 3.

For a program in its second season, this year's team held onto the dream of going down in history as Orange's first regional champion. A team that makes it to the state tournament lives forever.

But that dream appeared dead until Horton's magic.

Dream resurrected. We have overtime. We have euphoria. The senior who trained with the U.S. National team last year saved Orange's season. In the celebration that followed, Horton ripped off his jersey before being mobbed by teammates on an emotional high.

Boys will be boys.

But the officials didn't see an act of spontaneous jubilation by teenagers. They saw an unsportsmanlike act that required discipline. An official pulled out a red card and assigned it to Horton, an automatic ejection. It is the harshest of high school penalties.

There's nothing soft about a red card. DeSales coach Dominic Romanelli had two players get yellow cards in last Saturday's 4-0 regional final win over Lisbon Beaver, and he pulled those two players almost immediately. He didn't want to take the chance.

When Horton walked off the field after regulation, he did so for the final time as a high school soccer player. Not only was he ejected for that game, the rule states he has to sit out for two games after that. Horton wouldn't be allowed to play unless his team made the state final.

Soccer players are held to a higher standard I guess. Ted Papas, who is the defensive coordinator for the Orange football team, was questionably tossed from the Pioneers' 31-15 loss to Big Walnut on Sept. 25, and the penalty was a one-game suspension. Typically for most sports, an ejection mandates a one-game suspension.

But red cards are different.

Horton's penalty was too harsh even though it never grew to include a second game. It was essentially a technical foul, a 15-yard penalty. It wasn't a career defining negative.

Eject him? I would have congratulated him. That was a special play. I would have been gracious to get to see it. We're all sports fans after all, aren't we? It's not like he stepped up to a Jerome player and started pointing, "In yo' face."

Without Horton, Orange eventually beat Jerome 3-2 in overtime, but the season ended on nov. 7 when the Pioneers lost to Gahanna 1-0 in a regional final. That Gahanna team was nationally ranked and had perhaps the area's other top player, William Trapp. Trapp also trained with an elite national-level team last year instead of playing in high school.

On the field on Nov. 7, they were supposed to meet.

But for some reason, officials felt the need to tell you to cool it during one of the biggest moments of your life.

That's the rule. That's the lesson. Ridiculous.