This mentality of playing not to lose happens at every level. Example...my daughter's soccer team won the state title this July in their age group the exact same way. We got a lucky bounce to score early...got worked over the next 40+ minutes until the opposing team decided to play "prevent" D with a 2-1 lead...we socred with 30 seconds left to tie it. Won it 2-0 in a shootout with my daughter stopping all 4 shootout shots. (shameless father plug)
It's human nature to play not to lose...unfortunately. But this debacle today was really, really tough to watch.