Boys Soccer 4A finals: Bowie 2, Perry Hall 1

COMPLETE VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS ON THEIR WAY!

By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

After each Bowie boys soccer player received his state championship plaque, Coach Richard Kirkland shook each players’ hand, looked him in the eye and told him it was well deserved because, “it doesn’t come easy.”

Kirkland and the Bulldogs certainly know.

Bowie’s 2-1 win over Perry Hall in the 4A state championship Saturday at UMBC gave the Bulldogs their first title since 1991 and capped off an undefeated season at 18-0. Bowie won seven state championships from 1978 to 1991 but had come up short in six trips to the state semifinals since then, including the past two seasons.

Junior midfielder Dylan Thompson scored the game-winning goal and Bowie held off a number of Perry Hall chances at the end of the game.

“Just to be on the team that is the 2008 state championship is exciting and I got the winning goal,” Thompson said. “It’s so exciting.”

Every day, Bowie was reminded of how long it had been since a state championship by team’s warm-up T-shirts, which have each state title year printed on the front. Above a soccer ball logo are the state title years and below the ball are the regional championship years.

The team got new shirts each of the past three years to add the regional title but the dates above the ball never changed. And for the team’s nine seniors it seemed like a state championship shirt may never come.

After falling to eventual champions Magruder in the state semifinals last year, 4-1, senior midfielder Joshua Patterson had his doubts before the season as to whether the Bulldogs would ever be able to get past their state semifinals roadblock.

“We really felt confident in our team and we lost again,” Patterson said of last year. “And we lost handily, too. We knew it would be tough to get back again, much less get past the semifinals.”

But after Bowie won its sixth straight game to open the season, in which the Bulldogs outscored their opponents, 32-5, it clicked that this year’s team would have a chance.

“We were like, ‘Lets go for a state championship,’” junior forward Brian Graham said.

With a win over Severna Park, the Bulldogs reached the state finals for the first time since 2000, pitting them against a Perry Hall team who was making its second straight state finals appearance and looking for its first state championship in program history.

Bowie had the majority of the scoring chances in the first half and notched the game’s first goal just one minute, 29 seconds into the second half when Patterson headed in a rebound off a Graham free kick that hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced straight down in front of the goal.

All season Kirkland has preached that the Bulldogs must especially focus during the first five minutes after scoring a goal or they will allow a quick one the other way. Just 19 seconds later, Perry Hall made Kirkland’s words look prophetic as John Shipley headed in a cross by Collin Rome to tie the game.

“For a flash there we actually played the game we’ve been playing all season long,” Perry Hall Coach Danny Skelton said. “At that moment I thought we were going to spark back to life and start playing our game.”

But Bowie continued to apply the majority of the offensive pressure and with 27:45 remaining in the game, Thompson found himself open from point-blank range on the left side of the net. His first shot was blocked, his second was saved and he finally headed in a third shot for the goal.

“I followed it up,” Thompson said. “I was just there. I’m always there.”