The Austin boys soccer team finished with a flurry, but it wasn’t enough to keep its season alive as it fell short by a score of 2-1 against Byron in the Section 1A semifinals in Art Hass Stadium Saturday.

The No. 2 seeded Packers (7-7-5 overall) had three good scoring chances in the last two minutes but all of them came up empty. Roel Torres had a 35-yard free kick sail a couple of feet wide of the net with 1:37 left, Torres had a 16-yard free kick deflected with a minute left and Noah Brehmer had a header go a foot over the post with nine seconds left.

“I think they know we brought it to them in the end and they got lucky,” Austin forward Levi Veirkandt said. “I feel like we should’ve scored.”

Veirkandt put the Packers on the board when he scored a put-back goal with 17:27 left in the game. From that point on, Austin did all it could to keep its season alive as it stayed aggressive on the offensive end.

The game was scoreless at halftime and Bryon (11-3-5 overall) put the pressure on Austin when Thomas Jensen scored with 25:23 left in the game and Mitchell Forrest Enerson put in a header off a corner kick with 19:49 left in the game.

Once the Bears took a 2-0 lead, Austin cranked up the intensity but it wasn’t enough.

“I don’t think there was that sense of urgency (earlier)” Austin head coach Jens Levisen said. “All of the sudden we’re down by two and it’s like ‘Oh, tonight could be the last one.’ That’s when we had the sense of urgency.”

Veirkandt said the Packers found their aggressiveness when their season was on the line with 20 minutes left in the game.

“The first thought was we had to get back in it and not play like we’re down,” Veirkandt said. “We had to go from there, and I guess we just couldn’t put on in the back of the net in the end.”

Austin finished the game with eight shots on goal and Abraham Manzano had two saves for the Packers.