Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007
After three of its most dramatic wins put it in the Maryland 3A state championship, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase boys soccer team ended its season Saturday with slightly less suspense, but more in touch with its postseason destiny.
All it took was one feel-good moment, when junior striker David Williams, who didn’t make the varsity team last season, found the net three minutes into the second half to give the school its fifth-ever boys state soccer title in a 1-0 win over Harford County’s Bel Air High School.
Saturday’s championship game at South River High School in Edgewater may not have elicited the suspense that November’s playoff games had, but the outcome was just as sweet for a team that hasn’t claimed a state title since 2001.
‘‘I was expecting such a close call that it hasn’t even hit me yet,” said first-year B-CC head coach Sean Karns. ‘‘I think I was so emotionally drained from the Watkins Mill-Urbana-Northern games that I was numb by tonight. When David scored, I actually turned to my assistant coach and said, ‘Why am I not doing a back flip right now?’”
B-CC’s postseason run might be described by many as miraculous, so much so that holding a lead for nearly 40 minutes in the second half against Bel Air seemed all too easy for the team.
It took every bit of reserve for the Barons, who finished the season with a 12-3-2 record, to even get to the state championship game.
In the 3A West Region semifinals with Watkins Mill on Nov. 3, the Barons trailed 1-0 well into stoppage time, just seconds from playoff elimination. But Williams headed in a corner kick 30 seconds before the final whistle, and sophomore midfielder Ben Fernandez converted the team’s fifth and final shot in penalty kicks to send B-CC to the regional final.
‘‘Our whole team had been saying it since day one — state champs,” Fernandez said after the game against Watkins Mill, moments after ripping his shirt off and running maniacally around the field.
The heart-pounding postseason continued in the regional final against Frederick County’s Urbana on Nov. 6, when B-CC again found itself behind by a goal until junior Ethan White tied the score at 1-1 midway through the game.
Then early in the second half, Williams knocked in the game-winning goal to put the Barons in the semi-finals for the first time since 2004.
But even before the barons made the trek to play Calvert County’s Northern High School in Hagerstown on Nov. 10, the team was starting at a deficit. White, the team’s cornerstone at center midfielder, drew two yellow cards in the Urbana game — twice called for a ‘‘ dangerous slide tackle” — and had to miss the state semifinal match-up.
In that game, the Barons trailed 3-1 midway through the second half, which they played a man down after midfielder Gil Kirk received a red card for kicking an opponent in the leg.
But fate had the Barons in approval. Fernandez cut the lead to one, then junior Chris Woodruff’s late goal provided the equalizer. And in double overtime, Woodruff followed up a tremendous solo effort from Williams by blasting his slow cross into the net, sending B-CC to the state final.
‘‘We were down this year a lot, and we just didn’t give up — that’s what we’ve got over every other team,” Williams said. ‘‘Usually when teams get down, they start playing worse. When we were down, we just kept fighting harder. The players just want it so bad. This team ... is unbelievable.”
