River Hill's Mo Hamzeh was a freshman sitting on the bench when River Hill won its last state title in 1999.

Yesterday at rain-swept UMBC, he played a more important role by scoring the only goal in the second-ranked Hawks' 1-0 victory in the Class 3A boys soccer state championship game against fifth-ranked Dulaney.

River Hill (16-2-1) won its fourth state title in the school's seventh year of existence.

"I never expected to get the winning goal," Hamzeh said. "This is the biggest high for me - the greatest feeling I've ever had. I'm going to truly miss this team."

Hamzeh (18 goals, nine assists) scored with 7:19 left to play on a direct kick from 25 yards. The low shot curled around a wall of players. Sophomore Dulaney goalkeeper Tyler Hodgins tried to kick-save it, but the ball hit the post and went in.

"We work on set plays every day," Hamzeh said. "To throw their wall off, Justin Hughes touches it to David Adams, who stops it, and I hit it with my right."

Dulaney's only state title was in 1999, and this was the fifth state final for the Lions (14-5).

Although Hamzeh was the obvious center of attention afterward, River Hill received outstanding efforts from many players.

Sophomore midfielder Jeremy Smith marked Dulaney's dynamic center midfielder, Sean Rush.

Fullback Pat Nairin was a physical force on the left side and played numerous good balls forward.

In the second half, when the Hawks outshot Dulaney 10-1, Justin Hughes moved from forward to mark Dulaney captain and midfielder Eric Frey and stop him from distributing. That allowed Hawks stopper Brian Walter to mark Dulaney's leading scorer, James Russo.

"I tried to just sit on Russo and deny him the ball," said Walter, who was one of the Hawks' most consistent players all season. "[David] Adams and Smith really stepped up at midfield for us. We wanted this game so badly that no one was going to take it from us."

River Hill coach Bill Stara praised sweeper Jonathan Csanady.

Dulaney coach Steve Shaw said that Hawks midfielder Mike Stromberg hurt them in the second half.

"He made a big difference opening things up. Their restart [goal] was a great ball that our keeper almost made a miraculous save on. He [Hodgins] made two other fantastic saves. In the second half, they swarmed us. We had no numbers on attack."

Shaw also thought that Frey did a nice job marking the speedy Hughes (10 goals, 14 assists) and that Lions sweeper Danny Keppeler made some good double teams in the back.

"River Hill's bread and butter is in the corners, and he did a nice job doubling," Shaw said. "I would like to have seen it played without standing water on the field, but it was a good game."

Said Hamzeh: "We were on top of our game. Every player was hyped up. Our defense was incredibly strong. Our offense had its chances and we finally got lucky at the end."