Hereford suffered its third straight loss to Frederick County's Urbana, this time in the Class 4A/3A North Region final, 32-27, Wednesday night in Parkton.
The Hawks, from Frederick County, topped Perry Hall, 36-27, to advance to the final against the Bulls, who throttled Eastern Tech, 42-26, in the other semifinal.
With the victory, Urbana advances to a state semifinal at North Point High in Waldorf on Saturday.
Hereford (23-7) grabbed a 12-6 advantage in the regional final after freshman Billy Hess decisioned senior Dan Morley in the 152-bracket before the Hawks drew even with wins by Jacob Thomas and Mike Virnelson.
Sophomore Brock Turnbaugh then gave the Bulls a big boost with a second-period pin at 182 only to see the visitors catch up again, 18-18, on a pin by senior Joe Rimmel at 195.
Junior Mike Swiger would give Hereford its last lead, 21-18, when he edged Drew Thomas, 5-1, at 220.
Junior heavyweight Patrick Anderson then put up a good battle before succumbing to sophomore Nick Keller, which started a four-match run by the Hawks to give them an insurmountable 32-21 bulge.
The most gut-wrenching of those, from the Bulls' perspective, was freshman Morgan Way's 6-5 win over Anthony Genco, considering the Bulls' sophomore was penalized a point for unsportsmanlike conduct.
"The other guy hit my guy out of bounds," Hereford coach Ron Causey. "And my guy retaliated. They always catch the second guy, so you can't react that way."
Hereford junior Kevin Wheeler won by forfeit to make the score more respectable in the final match.
"They have really good feeder programs in Frederick County," Genco said. "They put out a really good lineup, but I think it says a lot about us that we're always able to hang with them. In this region, it's either us or them. They're our biggest rival."