No. 1 Centennial has a tradition of playing great defense, and the Eagles lived up to that tradition last night by beating Howard in the Class 3A East Region semifinal, 2-0.
It was the eighth shutout for the Eagles, who have allowed six goals.
Centennial (12-0-2) will play the winner of the Broadneck-James M. Bennett game for the regional championship Tuesday or Wednesday.
"I've got to hand it to our defenders because they held tight in back and freed up everyone else to run," Centennial coach Bill Stara said.
Those defenders included sweeper Ben Stephenson, fullbacks Cort Yetso and Kumi Walker and stopper Doug Ulman. Centennial's goalkeeper, Brock Yetso, also made a couple of big saves.
Yetso was especially tested when Ben Stephenson had to leave the game with a leg injury with 23:43 left to play and Centennial up, 1-0.
Stephenson was out for about eight minutes, and during that time Howard (7-6-1) mounted two of its best scoring threats.
Stephenson's brother, Matt, scored the game's first goal in the 11th minute, but it was set up by a great move from All-Metro striker Brian West.
West beat three defenders, drove toward the goal and forced Howard goalkeeper Joel Sackett toward him. Then he passed off to an unguarded Matt Stephenson at the far post for an easy goal.
Howard's Bryon Dietzel was assigned to guard West.
"Bryon busted his butt trying to mark West and deserves some credit,' Howard coach Dave Kelley said.
West took a pass from Matt Stephenson and beat Sackett in the 44th minute, but the junior striker's hard shot was wide of the open net.
With 12:49 left to play, Chris Dodson's header came close to tying it up.
Centennial finally scored the clincher with 11:17 left. Midfielder Cory Piette took a pass from Ulman and kicked it past several players from the 10-yard line.
"We played a hard second half but we never accomplished offensively what we had to," Kelley said. "You don't get many chances against Centennial and you can't miss when you do get one.'"
"They were just a better team than we were and should have won," Kelley said.