The chanting started long before the final whistle.
"SEMIFINALS! SEMIFINALS!"
The Reservoir fans were right on target. With three second-half goals, the Gators shut out Mt. Hebron to earn a spot in the final four in the Class 3A state championships.
It's the third straight trip to the championship round for the Gators, who are the defending state champs in their class. They will likely face Huntingtown in the semifinals on Saturday at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore. Game time had not been determined at press time.
Reservoir beat Huntingtown, 1-0, in the state championship game last year.
In Class 2A action, Glenelg beat visiting Loch Raven, 2-0, to advance to the state semifinal game.
"Now we can move on," said Reservoir's Taylor Sullivan, who scored the game's final goal with less than four minutes left to play.
Reservoir has now won five straight games, a real achievement for a team that lost five out of its first six games this fall.
"We've definitely grown a lot," said senior midfielder Michelle Viegas.
Mt. Hebron and Reservoir played even the first half. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Amanda Jackson sent a pass to Amy Armstrong in the left corner. She one-touched it over the head of keeper Tahlia Tavai.
"Mt. Hebron is so physical and so determined. Up until we got that first goal, it was an absolute battle," said Reservoir coach Josh Sullivan, whose team is now 11-6.
Mt. Hebron had a chance to tie it a minute later but Susie Halper's free kick from the 18-yard line curved wide to the left.
Viegas put the game out of reach at the eight-minute mark, and Sullivan's goal four minutes later was the icing on the victory.
"Throughout the season we've had so many chances and haven't been able to finish them. But lately we've been able to put them in the net, and they've been really nice goals," said Armstrong.
Halper tried to put the loss into words. "We've come a long way. Nobody wants to lose" at this point in the season.
Mt. Hebron coach Tim Deppen told his players after the game that he was proud that they never backed down.
"We always leave it all on the field," said freshman Nia Crump.
Josh Sullivan said he kept telling his team to be patient as they struggled through the early season.
"It's taken a while but we are playing great now. We knew we were going to take lumps but they had determination," he said. "It's fun to sit back and see" the team win.
Mt. Hebron beat Atholton, 1-0, in the regional semifinals, with Halper scoring on an assist from Kelly Richards. Reservoir traveled to Stephen Decatur for a 2-0 win in the other semifinal game. Just as against Mt. Hebron, Armstrong scored the game's first goal. The second goal came from Paola Rosa.
Glenelg wins again
Glenelg's 2A North regional championship game against visiting Loch Raven was a standoff until more than halfway through the second half. Then, in a span of less than four minutes, the Gladiators struck twice on a pair of long throw-ins by senior Danielle Burris.
Kathleen Mensing put the Gladiators on the scoreboard, and Amanda Lyons added the second goal.
Glenelg advances to the 2A state semifinal and will play the winner of Oakdale, the 2010 Class 1A state champ, and Middletown, the team that defeated Glenelg in the 2A state championship last year, on Saturday at Bel Air.
"In the state final four, all of the bad teams are gone," said Glenelg coach Dean Sheridan.
Burris' throw-ins put pressure on Loch Raven's defense.
"We work on it some ... it's a question of taking advantage of it. Basically what it does is it doubles the number of corners, and defensively you have to play it like a corner," Sheridan said of the long throw-ins. "And the rest of the group played like they can play, which is pretty good."
Loch Raven advanced to the championship game as the No. 4 seed, upsetting top-seeded Chesapeake in the semifinals.
"They played so hard throughout the whole game, battled in there tight. We had a couple chances here and there, we had to fend off all of their long throws and they did a great job up to a certain point," Loch Raven coach Anthony Menegatti said. "They got beat by an all-state player there. Throwing the ball practically into the goal is very hard to defend and (Burris) did a great job doing that.
Loch Raven sophomore midfielder "Jessica Carpenter controlled the middle of the field and neutralized a lot of the play throughout the game, that was key to us battling," he added.
Brooke Carey, starting her first playoff game following an injury, had six saves for Glenelg.
Glenelg beat Marriotts Ridge, 3-2, in the semifinals. Amanda Lyons, Ashley Wilkenson and Christina Kaminsky all scored in the first half, and then the Gladiators had to hold off Marriotts Ridge. Zoe Stukenberg and Morgan Crable scored to put the Mustangs back in the game, but the visitors couldn't get the tying goal.
Andrew Conrad contributed to this story.