Hereford coach Mike Lacko knows exactly when his Bulls will have a superb performance.
"You can tell when they are very on," Lacko said. "They come into team room (before the game) motivated and positive. You have a feeling we will play very, very well no matter what the outcome."
Lacko couldn't have been more right. The Bulls dominated North Harford in the first half of the Class 3A North Region final against visiting North Harford Thursday night.
Hereford scored three goals in the first 15 minutes on their way to a 3-1 victory.
The win advanced the Bulls (12-4-2) onto the state semifinals, where they will play the Linganore-Watkins Mills winner at the Community College of Baltimore County-Essex Saturday.
It will be Hereford's seventh trip to the final four under Lacko in 10 years.
Hereford looked determined to get there against North Harford (9-7-2).
The Bulls scored less than four minutes into play. David Endres' crossing pass from the left corner challenged goalie Austin Reitz, but it went off his hands and a North Harford defender and right to Jack Prigel, who chipped just inside the left post from about 10 yards out.
The Bulls went ahead 2-0 in the 15th minute when Zach Bell's corner kick went untouched and into the far right corner.
"It was very unusual and rare for something like that to happen," Lacko said of a player scoring directly on a corner kick.
North Harford gave up a third goal in the 24th minute when Endres stole a ball from a defender and blasted a shot from 16 yards to the upper right corner.
"We played bad defensively in the first half and Hereford capitalized on it," North Harford coach Matt Johnstone said. "We made some mistakes."
North Harford received a spark midway through the half. Randy Foster lofted a shot from 40 yards out that sailed over Hess and under the cross bar.
But Hawks didn't threaten to score that much the rest of the way.