The Northern Patriots got past a steady rain and the visiting Huntingtown Hurricanes to repeat as 3A South champions 1-0 on Tuesday night.
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By Andy States
Content Manager, SMAC

Tuesday night's 3A South girls soccer final had the look of a game destined for overtime for the casual observer -- two county rivals playing on a rain-soaked field in windy conditions. But as the game went scoreless for a half, Northern coach Jay Loveless felt his team was right where it needed to be.

"I told the girls at halftime we had them right where we wanted them," Loveless said of his team's regional final matchup with the Huntingtown Hurricanes. "I guess they listened."

With the game clock showing less than seven minutes remaining in regulation time, Northern's Jody Durbin won a battle for the ball just in front of the Huntingtown goal and sliced a sharp-angled shot into the net for the game's only goal in Northern's 1-0 win over the visiting Hurricanes. Northern, which was the region's No. 1 seed, advances to play Fallston in Saturday night's 3A semifinals at 7:30 at North Point High. The regional championship was the second consecutive for Northern, which also celebrated Loveless' 100th win as coach on Tuesday night.

After defeating Huntingtown for the regional crown a year ago, Loveless felt his team had to keep its intensity up against its county rival and second-seeded Hurricanes in the regional-championship rematch. A task made all the more difficult by the conditions, with a steadily increasing rain pelting the muddy field.

"It was really tough with all the slipping and sliding," Durbin said. "It's hard to stay in control on the field, but you have to do it."

"That rain definitely played a factor," added Northern's Katie Gitlin. "We're a very good possession team, so when the balls getting stuck in the middle in a mud pit and going from grass to mud it changes speeds and it's hard to anticipate it. So that was tough, but we overcame it and ended up winning."

In recent years, Northern (14-1) and Huntingtown (12-2-1) have been each other's major rival. In addition to the close proximity of one to the other, the teams are in the same region and find themselves competing with each other for the right to move on to the state tournament.

"I hate playing Huntingtown and I love playing Huntingtown," Gitlin said. "They're our biggest rival, so it's always fun. It's definitely not an easy game. It's a war out there. We're battling really hard."

On the scoring play, Durbin chased down a loose ball and fought it through Huntingtown's keeper towards the goal line and off to the net's side. The senior then blasted the shot back across into the goal for what stood as the game's only tally.

"I pulled a couple forwards and was rotating them in and Jody had just gotten back in the game," Loveless said. "She had some fresh legs and I guess maybe that what the spark was."

The loss was especially tough to swallow for the Hurricanes, who felt as though they had put themselves in good position, as well. Five seniors played their last game, and with that ended careers which featured two regional championships.

"I thought we created a lot more opportunities. I thought we pressured the ball more consistently than they did and to lose like that is just unsatisfying," Huntingtown coach Rob Soper said. "Not sour grapes, [Northern is] a great team, a great program and I have all the respect in the world for them. I just felt to lose that way was unsatisfying.

"It's tough. We're got five girls here now that have been to states twice, won SMAC once or twice, regional champs twice ... they are the nucleus of this team."