by Dan Kauffman
Special to DigitalSports
It left Sparrows Point High boys' soccer team in a daze. Eventually, Boonsboro coach Brad Delauter was left damp.
Boonsboro defeated the Pointers, 4-1, in a state Class 1A semifinal contest at North Hagerstown's Mike Callas Stadium Saturday evening. The Warriors will play Pocomoke for the state championship this coming week at UMBC's Retriever Stadium.
Keith Welch scored two goals for Boonsboro (15-4 overall) and Shane Lowery and Miciah Jessie each contributed a score. Seth Hewitt scored Sparrows Point's only goal.
The Warriors did all their damage in a stunning 12-minute outburst in the opening half. No one saw it coming.
"I don't think I've ever seen them look better in finishing," said Delauter. "We wanted two goals off the top. In these kind of games, whoever scores first and definitely gets that second point makes a big difference.
The fact that it turned out to be four points, I was shocked."
"We had a couple of breakdowns," said Sparrows Point coach George Bishoff. "Their one guy [Shane Lowery] went to his left all the time we never stopped it. He took it to us with his speed."
After both teams played a conservative opening 15 minutes, spaces started to open up and Boonsboro took advantage. In the 18th minute, Welch headed in a corner kick from Ryan Barrett for the game's opening score.
In the 20th minute, Barrett played a perfect through ball to Lowery, who broke through the left side of the Pointers' back line and chipped the ball past goalie Garrett Heilman for a 2-0 lead. In the 22nd minute, Lowery beat two defenders 1-on-1 as he raced up the left side, then found a wide-open Micaiah Jessie in the 18-yard box for the easy score and a 3-0 lead.
In the 29th minute, Barrett's long throw-in from the right side was flicked on by Lowery before Welch scored on a header for the second time.
"Once we got our first goal, we had the momentum," said Welch. "It just kept coming and coming."
"They got that first goal and we fell apart," said Sparrows Point junior defender Chris Mahomes. "It's tough when you get down and if you don't get the next one, it really puts you down. Once it got to three and four, there's nothing you can really do, but we tried."
Sparrows Point (10-5) finally broke through in the 36th minute on Seth Hewitt's strike from 15 yards out into the top right side after Boonsboro failed several times to clear the ball. Even though they were down 4-1, the goal gave the Pointers some life.
The momentum carried into the early stages of the second half, but it didn't translate into goals. The Pointers had three golden chances, but one hit the crossbar and the other two were cleared in the goal mouth. The Pointers took 15 shots over the final 40 minutes.
"We were really pressuring the whole second half," said Bishoff, whose team was seeking its first state championship since 2006. "If one of those goes in, it's a whole new game.
The beginning of the season, we played as a lot of individuals and we really struggled. The last five games, we came together as a team and played well."
In its first state Final Four appearance, Boonsboro finds itself 80 minutes away from its first state title. Welch said he didn' think the Warriors would make it this far.
"My heart is with the boys and I'm very happy they're going," said Delauter, who had a bucket of water dumped on him after the game. "I'm not the one out there playing. They've earned it, and I just hope they feel it in the heart when they step out on that university [UMBC] field because they've earned it."
DigitalSports' Derek Toney (dtoney@digitalsports.com) contributed to this article.
