Give my congratulations to your son and his team!
Getting to play at the state level is in and of itself recognition of good skills, hard work and teamwork. I know the kids are disappointed but they should be very proud of their accomplishment!
It's hard to watch them hurt over it though, I'm sure. Your son is a little past the age where a pizza party and a trophy will cure all ills. A couple of years back my son's flag football team lost the championship game by 1 point in the last 30 seconds of the game. They were very upset for about 5 minutes, then the coach announced we were going for pizza.
Alice