South River High boys soccer team heard the past few days that it’s hard to beat a team three times.
Monday, the Seahawks defeated Broadneck in the Anne Arundel County championship game at Northeast, after topping the Bruins during the regular season. With a spot in the Class 4A East Region II final on the line, No. 6 South River didn’t pay attention to the so-called doubters.
The Seahawks made it three-for-three with a dominating 5-0 victory over the 12th-ranked Bruins in Edgewater. South River (14-1-1 overall) will play fourth-ranked Severna Park Tuesday for the region title and a spot in the 3A state quarterfinals.
“All week I’ve been hearing that it’s hard to beat a team three times,” South River coach Marlyn Argueta said. “I kept telling my team, ‘I’m not worried,’ because we’re that good.”
The newly-minted Anne Arundel County champs got started early Friday. Cole Mastal started a run into the box, but was brought down from behind.
The referee pointed to the penalty spot, and Lucas Evans took the ball. Evans slotted the ball past Bruins keeper Matt Tettemer. South River was up three minutes into the game.
Seven minutes later, Max Cerulla found himself with Tettemer, and beat him to find the net. Cerulla has been a leader all year for the Seahawks, scoring 15 goals so far this season.
He recorded a hat trick on Friday, following his first half strike with two in the second half to ice the game.
“(Max) shows up in big moments,” Argueta said. “He’s definitely one of our best players. He scores big goals. I can’t ask much more of him.”
Broadneck (11-4) didn’t back down after the Seahawks’ early assault. Despite a strong Seahawk back line led by seniors RJ Eubanks and Will Gervase, the Bruins found themselves with chances to get back in the game.
But, for every small chance Broadneck found, South River cleared the ball away.
“This is a group that doesn’t have the most talent, but they have a ton of desire,” Bruins coach Sean Tettemer said. “A ton of energy. An outstanding work ethic. They’re old school, gritty competitors.”
Broadneck was working its way back into the game, but Cerulla again stepped up for South River. With 24 minutes left in regulation, the ball fell to him off a rebound and he scored.
“We kind of had to hype ourselves up at halftime,” Cerulla said. “We saw we were slipping a little bit. With that second goal I had, that picked us up that we need to keep scoring and blow this out and finish this off.”
Three minutes later, Matt Tettemer blocked an Evans shot, and the rebound fell to Cerulla again. He tapped it in for the hat trick.
The Seahawks were able to get some of their younger players involved with a commanding four-goal cushion, including Cerulla’s younger brother, Lucas. The younger Cerulla received a through ball and finished with a shot from just inside the box.
“I’m definitely blessed with the whole family,” Argueta said.
Next for South River is Severna Park, which defeated Southern Maryland’s North Point in the other region semifinal Friday. The Falcons’ handed South River its lone loss, 3-1, earlier this month.
“We want a little bit of revenge against them,” Argueta said. “We want another crack at them. They’re a great team as well, and we just want to prove to them that we’re better.”
CLASS 4A EAST REGION II SEMIFINAL
NO. 6 SOUTH RIVER 5, NO. 12 BROADNECK 0
GOALS: South River - Lucas Evans, Max Cerulla 3, Lucas Cerulla.
ASSISTS: South River - Lucas Evans
SAVES: Broadneck- Matt Tettemer 6, Jackson Shaw 1; South River - Jay Jenkins 2.
