But there wasn’t a highly-paid football player writhing in pain on the ground in sight.

No, the drama unfolded in the robotics field of a major competition where Wollongong’s Project Bucephalus overcome adversity to win two titles which will see it represent Australia in two separate international tournaments.

But this honor looked out of reach after a ‘’contentious’’ decision to disqualify 12-year-old Faith Clark and 14-year-old Nicola Pang for disembarking from their airships while the game light was still red.

Project Bucephalus had allied with its second First Robotics Competition (FRC) team Komplete Kaos and another outfit for the finals’ stoush when all of a sudden it ‘’went very quiet and our two pilots were on the field crying’’.

’’What had happened was one of the field volunteers had lowered the ladder and gestured for the girls to come down and they had obeyed the adult but the problem was the lights weren’t green so as soon as the two of them hit the ground, boom two yellow cards, the entire alliance was disqualified,’’  Project Bucephalus team leader Andrew Clark said.

‘’It was very contentious. The opposition alliance was asking for a replay, they didn’t want the game to end that way.

‘’The girls were very upset, the ref was very upset ...the girls got a standing ovation walking off the field. They were hugged by everybody including the coaches of the opposition teams who were in tears themselves.

‘’No one wanted it to end that way. Even the American teams watching the live stream weren’t happy but out kids handled themselves with immense grace and maturity, there wasn’t any arguing or bad sportsmanship.’’

Faith said she was excited when it looked like the team had unexpectedly won the match.

‘’Being disqualified was a huge shock, and the other pilot and I felt like it was all our fault. We were very upset….but everyone else was supporting us,’’ she said.

Clark was ‘’extremely proud’’ of how his daughter Faith and Nicola handled the situation.

‘’We took them off somewhere where they recovered,’’ he said.

‘’There was crying, there was hugs but the kids showed immense grace under pressure to get back on the horse so to speak.’’

On the next day of competition Nicola helped the Helensburgh-based Komplete Kaos team win the ‘’Rookie All-Star’’ award at the South Pacific Regional tournament in Sydney in mid-March.

Faith also stepped up to somehow help Project Bucephalus win ‘’against all odds’’ the prestigious Chairman’s Award at the same tournament.

That success has secured the Wollongong-based robotics group a trip to the USA to compete in the FIRST World Championships.

Komplete Kaos will also be part of the 400 teams from around the world taking part in the tournament at Houston on April 19-22.

‘’This is a massive achievement for Wollongong and our two teams,’’ Clark said.

‘’Project Bucephalus isn’t only competing in the US, as reigning Australian champions, our FIRST LEGO League team will also travel to Denmark in May to compete in the Open European Championships (OEC).

‘’But it is our teams going to America that need support and sponsorship.’’

To support the group or for more information visit www.projectb.net.au, email coach@projectb.net.au or call 0403 390 547.