The Westminster Owls took their aggressive, hard-working ways to South River yesterday, only to find a Seahawks team with as much spunk and better skills.

In control from the onset, No. 2 South River got a first-half goal from senior Brandi Sutphin and protected its lead by controlling the midfield and constantly moving forward.

The 1-0 win sends the Seahawks (14-1-1) to the Class 4A East region final on Thursday.

The Owls - resilient on defense, but overmatched elsewhere - finish their season with a 7-5-2 mark.

The game's only goal was a gem. Junior Crystal Curry placed an indirect kick from 30 yards out to the far post for Sutphin, who timed her run perfectly to volley it home from 5 yards. It came in the 20th minute and proved to be enough.

"It was beautiful - we worked on those in practice," said South River coach Keith Fontaine. "Crystal just drops them in, then we've been teaching them how to stay a little deeper to make more timely runs and Brandi just one-timed it in."

The Owls got a 14-save performance from goalkeeper Kristin Greene and some strong play in front from sweeper Molly Coursey to keep it close, but couldn't muster any quality scoring opportunities.

Coach Terry Molloy expected a little more.

"Second-worst match of the year we played," he said. "First half I haven't seen us flatter than that all year. We let them do what they wanted to do. I watched [South River] on Friday and I thought we could give them some problems."

Only scoring one goal despite a 24-5 advantage in shots didn't bother Fontaine, who seemed confident his group will score when needed.

"The effort was what I asked from them, they played 110 percent, they dominated the game. We're just waiting for that finishing touch to come back and I think they're saving them for the big games," he said. "I think when you get that 1-0 lead and you're dominating, you lose a little of that sense of urgency and we were just a little bit off."