Huskies, Mustangs earn titles

Patterson Mill tops Loch Raven in 1A; CM Wright wins 3A

Before Patterson Mill played Loch Raven for the Class 1A boys soccer state championship on Saturday afternoon, senior Andrew Papageorgopoulos had a message for his team.

“This year before the game I told everybody to feel how it felt last year on the other side, against River Hill, when we were on the losing end and I just wanted everybody to remember how that feels and no one wanted to feel that,” he said.

Instead, they felt elation and relief after the Huskies (14-3) blanked Loch Raven, 3-0, to win the school’s first state boys soccer title in history.

Loch Raven (12-7-1) was seeking its fifth state championship in its 14th appearance.

Patterson Mill was making its fourth trip overall and fourth straight trip.

The Huskies controlled time of possession and threatened, but didn’t break the ice until Zach Hebb converted Eric Neutzing’s cross with a diving header for a 1-0 lead with 14:24 left in the half.

“I passed it out to Eric Neutzing and he crossed it in and I honestly don’t remember diving, it was just like my first instinct, I just dove and as soon as I got up everybody was screaming and yelling and I looked at the goal and the ball was in the net and I was like, ‘Did I do that?’”Hebb said.

Patterson Mill coach Wes Rich has seen Hebb’s acrobatic scores before, but was glad to see it on the grandest stage at Loyola University Maryland.

“I’ve coached Zach, even before high school, and he’s scored some crazy goals,” Rich said. “He’s just got a knack for the goal and as he showed, he’s willing to run through balls and run through defenders and do whatever it takes to get the ball on frame and he did it at the most critical point in the game and that really gave us momentum. It was huge.”

A hand ball nullified another goal later in the half for the Huskies, but Papageorgopoulos made it 2-0 with a low left-footed turf creeper to the left of Loch Raven goalie Brendan Hegberg (four saves) with 2:11 left in the first half.

Loch Raven didn’t have a shot on goal in the game and only had a few shots toward the goal.

“They were playing stopper, sweeper and it’s pretty hard when we don’t get a lot of possessions to break down a defense like that, so I feel like if we would have held the possession more, we would have gotten a lot more opportunities and they were a little bit more physical,” said Loch Raven junior Reice Thuerrauch, who led the Raiders with 13 goals this season.

C. MILTON WRIGHT 2, MAGRUDER 1: C. Milton Wright won its second consecutive title when the the Mustangs (15-2) knocked off Magruder for the Class 3A state championship.

Two mishaps by Magruder (10-4) inside its own 18-yard box led to both CMW goals.

“We felt confident coming into the game that if we played the way we wanted to play, that we’d create opportunities,” Mustangs coach Brian Tully said. “To be completely honest, we don’t think we really played as sharp as we’re capable of, but we showed some grit, some determination. To kind of not be at our best and still find a way to win the game. So a lot of credit to these guys.” The winning goal came with 23:46 left. The Mustangs took a free kick with junior defender Ryan Lindsey placing a nice ball into the box. Magruder goalie JC Cortez came off his line, but the ball was headed by a teammate over his head.

Over the remaining 23-plus minutes, CMW had to hold off a persistent Magruder attack.

“We saw every couple minutes they’d have a man, they always had an extra man come up, so we dropped back,” Mustangs senior defender Jacob Spurlock said. “We saw that they just played the long ball so one of us, me and Josh Witte, one of us stepped and the other shifted back behind, so they couldn’t get the through ball in.” — Randall L. McRoberts, Baltimore Sun Media Group

OAKDALE 2, RIVER HILL 1: Oakdale scored late in the first half and then won the shootout to beat top-ranked River Hill, 2-1, in the Class 2A state championship game at Ridley Athletic Complex.

Senior goalkeeper Jack Roby saved the first two shots in the shootout and junior midfielder Daniel Ivanov scored in the fifth round to help the Bears (14-5-1) win the shootout, 4-3, and capture their third state title and first since 2015.

“[Roby] made two huge saves,” said Oakdale coach Mitch Rubin. “Like everything else, trying to be prepared and working and spending that time [taking penalty kicks in practice], today’s lesson is it pays off.”

Junior midfielder Riley Daiger netted the first goal for the Bears on a counter attack with 10 minutes, 31 seconds left in the opening half. He received the ball from Kurt Grzybowski and dribbled more than half the length of the field and put his shot past River Hill senior goalkeeper Patrick Sherlock.

The Hawks (16-1-1) tied the game 2:56 into the second half when senior midfielder Justin Harris’ cross toward the back post found its way into goal. They pressured forward and controlled the pace of play the majority of the second half and saw a shot ring off the post, but they were unable to get anything else past Roby. — Tim Schwartz, Baltimore Sun Media Group