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Boys soccer: Marriotts Ridge, Mt. Hebron advance to regional finals

Brad Martinelli of Marriotts Ridge passes to a teammate during a 2A North regional semifinal game against Owings Mills on Friday. Martinelli finished with a goal and two assists in a 5-0 Marriotts Ridge victory.
Brad Martinelli of Marriotts Ridge passes to a teammate during a 2A North regional semifinal game against Owings Mills on Friday. Martinelli finished with a goal and two assists in a 5-0 Marriotts Ridge victory. (Staff photo by Brian Krista, Patuxent Publishing)

And then there were two.

Marriotts Ridge in 2A North and Mt. Hebron in 3A East survived the regional semifinal round of the playoffs Friday night with a pair of shutout victories.

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Centennial, on the road against top-seeded Stephen Decatur, wasn't so lucky.

The Eagles fell 2-0, snapping a 10-game unbeaten streak dating back to the middle of the regular season. That sets up a regional final between Stephen Decatur and Mt. Hebron on Tuesday for a berth in the 3A state final four.

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Marriotts Ridge will be looking to get back to the state final four as well when it hosts Loch Raven on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the 2A North region championship game.

To earn that meeting with Loch Raven, the Mustangs put on quite the offensive display in their semifinal game against Owings Mills. Scoring four times in the first half, Marriotts Ridge rolled to a comfortable 5-0 victory.

"We had a lot of chances in the first 15 minutes and didn't put any away, but once we finally got one it relieved the pressure a little bit and things kept coming," Marriotts Ridge coach Kevin Flynn said.

Brad Martinelli started the scoring for the Mustangs with 25:52 left in the first half by heading home a cross by Jonathan Muth. Two minutes later, Nick Applegate increased the lead to 2-0 by finishing a corner kick by Martinelli.

Before the half was over, Matt Ryan and Jeff Kammerer also found the net to send the host Mustangs into the break up 4-0. Then, midway through the second half, Brooks Chilcoat added an insurance tally to create the final 5-0 margin.

Marriotts Ridge goalie Pat Moore needed to make just one save to help preserve the shutout, while Owings Mills' Dan Grossman finished with eight saves in the loss.

Even though the Mustangs dominated during their semifinal victory, Flynn reminded his team after the game that there is still plenty of room for growth going forward.

"We have to keep getting better from here on out, because everything is going to be tougher," Flynn said. "Loch Raven, who we have next, is a very good team and they beat Dundalk, 6-2, last night. They're a team that's also used to winning and they're not going to come in here afraid."

In its game, Mt. Hebron also didn't waste any time getting ahead. The Vikings scored twice in the first half and that was all it needed to knock off J.M. Bennett, 2-0, on the road.

Josh Palin, on an assist from Emmanuel Wright, started the scoring. Then Wright, on an unassisted tally, increased the lead to two.

The win has Mt. Hebron back in the regional finals for the first time since losing to Atholton there two years ago. To get one step further, though, the Vikings will now have to get through a Stephen Decatur team that has already shut out River Hill (3-0) and Centennial (2-0) this postseason.

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