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One more.
That's the reality for the Whitman and Clarksburg boys soccer teams. Thanks to the Vikings' 3-2 victory over Prince George's County's High Point and the Coyotes' 4-0 blanking of Calvert's Northern, one more win will give each a state championship.
The county was shut out a year ago, with its only regional champion, Magruder, falling in the Class 4A state semifinals. But this weekend's games set up a potential repeat of 2007, when the Colonels and Bethesda-Chevy Chase won the 4A and 3A crowns.
Despite entering the 4A West Region tournament as the 12th seed, Whitman won four straight games to advance to Friday's state semifinal at Blair.
It was a wild one. The Vikings scored first, then lost the lead. They scored again ... and again lost the lead.
Finally, in the 68th minute, they took the lead for good. Senior striker Scott Gerfen stole the ball from a High Point defender, turned and drove home the game-winner just inside the left post.
It was his third goal of the game, and fifth of the playoffs.
"It feels amazing," Gerfen said. "It hasn't quite hit me. But it's exciting."
Whitman next faces Anne Arundel's Broadneck — which beat Urbana, 1-0, in its semifinal — in its first state championship game since the turn of the millennium. The Bethesda school shares the county record with seven Maryland titles, but its last came in 2000.
Though entering the final as the lower seed, the Vikings are no underdog. Led by goalkeeper Zach Khalifa and holding midfielder Dominick Yin, they have been dominant in the playoffs, allowing only a late goal to Blair in the regional quarterfinals with the game well in hand.
Clarksburg's defense has been just as dominant, also allowing just a single goal in the postseason. Their own goalkeeper-defender combination of Austin Fiedler and Henry Reyes — "our little engine," according to Arjona — has helped combine for a county-high 12 shutouts.
They can work the other end of the field, too. On Saturday, the Coyotes exploded with four goals from four different players. Nick Civetti, Nelson Escobar, and Fernand Fekeu tallied in the second half, while Arjona began the onslaught with a 35-yard blast in the 27th minute.
Their opponent will be Baltimore County's Hereford, winner of the 3A North Region. Its state semifinal was much more suspenseful, coming in penalty kicks over Howard's Atholton.
With a win, the Coyotes would grab their first-ever state title in a fall sport.
