They danced and mouthed along as coach Josh Wagener relayed the plan for what became the winning set to the team huddle. That energy carried over into the third set, players still dancing and singing to the melody as they waited for the opening serve. Their looseness came in handy when CMIT-North crawled back from a large deficit to take a late lead. A Wagener timeout reminded his players of the goal, and Patterson Mill pulled back ahead to complete its straight set victory, 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 and clinch a state championship appearance.

“It means the world to all of them to make it to that Saturday,” Wagener said. “That’s the first major goal. I know it means the world. Being so close for so many years, and most of them have been with the varsity for at least three years, just means so much for the whole program.”

This stage has been the ceiling for Patterson Mill in recent years. The Huskies have reached the state semifinal round four years in a row but lost in each of the last three. This year was different because of the senior class that experienced all of those heartbreaks.

“I’ve been with these girls for years, you know the buttons to hit,” Wagener said. “I just put it all in perspective. We’ve been here for four years in a row and came so close, and now we’re a couple points away. You just gotta push. I could see them getting tired and just didn’t want it to go to a fourth set.”

Their experience showed in Tuesday’s win. Patterson Mill controlled the first two sets with big early leads they maintained throughout and fended off a late CMIT-North surge in the final moments.

Patterson Mill will face Clear Spring, a three-set victor over South Carroll in the other 1A semifinal, in Saturday’s state title game at Harford Community College. Until then, practices will be kept light and fun, Wagener said. Just like how they play when it matters.

Bel Air falls to 17-time state champion

The Bobcats knew what they were up against.

Williamsport, the dominant Washington County squad, has controlled the Class 2A girls volleyball bracket for years. The defending state champions’ path back to the top this year took them through Bel Air, which lost in straight sets 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 to end its season Tuesday night in a Class 2A state semifinal on its home court.

“They were just a really good team,” senior right side Annalise Lewis said. “We could have executed better, but at the end of the day, we still played an amazing game. It was our own mistakes, little mistakes.”

Coach Dave Simon felt Tuesday was Bel Air’s first of two state championship games, the next coming Saturday if the Bobcats were to win. Instead, they couldn’t get past the semifinal round for the third time in seven years.

At the center of this year’s team was Lewis. Bel Air’s offense funneled through the imposing senior. “Every time she goes up, you can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen,” Simon said. She was a focal point again in the loss, leading comebacks that fell just short after Bel Air started each set in an early hole that proved too steep to climb out of.

“Just the people,” Lewis said when asked what she’ll remember most about the program. “You can’t get any better than this.”

“Annalise is a true leader,” Simon added. “She’s a great person, loves her teammates, does all the little things right, everything you’d want in a captain. She really ignites us and gets the fire started. And we want to keep it burning.”

Bel Air seems to reload every year, replacing county players of the year with ease to fuel its next deep postseason run. Last season, it was Anna Kane. This season was Lewis’ turn. There’s some underclassmen Simon has his eye on to take over in 2026. He’s confident his Bobcats will be back.

“We’ll kind of have to hit the reset button, to a degree,” Simon said. “We’re not starting from scratch. We’ll remain competitive.”

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The Terps started the 2025 season with four straight wins with a true freshman quarterback under center, but they have since dropped five straight games, including a 55-10 loss to No. 2 Indiana during homecoming and a 35-20 defeat at Rutgers on Saturday.

As a result, coach Michael Locksley has drawn the ire of fans and even some boosters.

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He must have taken it off at some point during the celebration. But he had a team photo to take. So his teammates paused, giving their star player a moment to go fetch it from the nearby locker room that music was still blaring out of.

“It was electric,” Tanguay said. “I love those guys.”

Fallston boys soccer wouldn’t be here without Tanguay, who scored two goals in regulation of the Cougars’ thrilling win over C. Milton Wright in their Class 2A semifinal on Friday. But he simultaneously almost cost them the game. He was responsible for his team’s first miss in penalty kicks after two scoreless overtimes. But his teammates held his head up and had his back. They converted the next five tries, the last one capped by a mad dash to the bleachers to meet their friends and family.

C. Milton Wright and Fallston high schools are just 6 miles apart. However, their boys soccer teams needed to play deep into the playoffs to see each other for the first time in two months — and needed sudden death PKs to decide a winner. Fallston will play for its first boys soccer state championship since 1992 and will make its third title game appearance in the last six years next week. Getting over that roadblock is all that’s left for coach Christopher Hoover’s dominant squad. They’ll face the winner of Saturday’s Glenelg-Hereford semifinal.

“I’m damn well bound to get one soon,” the coach joked. “It’s gonna take another effort like this.”

An even first half at Bel Air High on Friday ended in a 1-1 tie. CMW’s Owen Davis scored on a Charlie Kitz assist for the game’s first tally, then Tanguay notched Fallston’s first score on a penalty less than two minutes later. Tanguay added on midway through the second half, his second score of the night giving the Cougars their first lead.

“Every special team I’ve had, you have that connection. Sometimes it’s with one player, sometimes it’s with a bunch,” Hoover said. “I have a very special connection with Levi. He means a ton to us.”

Six minutes later, though, it was tied again when Ben Mroz notched the equalizer with 15 minutes to play in the second half.

A Mroz shot with three seconds remaining nearly won it for C. Milton Wright, but instead, overtime was needed. Ten scoreless minutes called for a second extra period. Another 10 scoreless minutes brought on penalty kicks.

Tanguay went second and missed as C. Milton Wright was successful on its first three tries. Henry Buyse’s attempt was off the mark on his team’s fourth shot and it was even after five apiece. Mason Judd made Fallston’s winning kick before Kitz’s next try was blocked — by Fallston’s backup goalie after its starter was injured in the state quarterfinals — to win it for the Cougars.

“We were talking about this at the beginning of the season,” Tanguay said. “We knew it was our year.”

C. Milton Wright caps memorable season

Coach Eric Riedlbauer knows his team, the defending 2A state champion, played with a target on its back all season. And yet, the Mustangs were right back playing into November again and one win away from another trip to the title game.

“Everybody wants to beat who won the state championship the year before,” Riedlbauer said. “I wouldn’t change anything in this game. We had plenty of chances and just didn’t convert.”

C. Milton Wright, which won the regular season meeting between these teams, overcame immense hardship this year. Zach Griffin, a senior on the team, was involved in the car crash that killed Blake Elliott, member of the school’s girls soccer team, earlier this fall. Teammates and coach visited Griffin in the hospital, and when he returned home, Griffin spent much of his time on the Mustang sidelines.

Although unable to take the field, Griffin was present throughout his team’s semifinal run. Every C. Milton Wright player shaved their hair in solidarity with Griffin, who after the accident needed a craniotomy, a surgery that temporarily removes part of the skull to access the brain, among other surgeries, according to updates posted to a GoFundMe page organized by a family friend.

In that, C. Milton Wright was playing for more.

“The fact that he’s back walking around, going to school, that’s worth more to me than any game,” Riedlbauer said. “The real life part of it of Zach and having him still here, you can’t put a price on it.”

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But it’s just what the Mavericks have done all season.

Their Thursday victory resembled many of their other 14 wins prior to this one. Manchester Valley entered the heavyweight bout winners of nine straight. Over that stretch, it has outscored opponents 43-3. And after beating the Mustangs in the 2A state semifinal, the defending state champs are one step closer to making it two in a row.

“It’s very exciting,” coach Jen Etzel said. “The girls have worked so hard this season. We knew the end goal we would want to get there. But we really have played game by game by game. It is obviously the ultimate goal. And it’s always been our vision. So it’s really exciting now that we’re here.”

Sophomore attack Lily Brookhart scored twice in her team’s win. Allyson Zour and Makenna Etzel added the other two goals.

Zour’s score was the game’s first less than three minutes into the opening quarter. Brookhart tallied her first in the second quarter to give Manchester Valley a two-goal halftime lead. Two goals within 90 seconds of each other doubled the Mavericks’ advantage late in the third.

Meanwhile, they held the Mustangs out of the net and hardly let them get close. C. Milton Wright’s lone penalty corner attempt was thwarted and other shots on goal were stopped. The score felt more insurmountable as it widened.

“This year, I’m definitely more prepared,” Brookhart said, a freshman on last year’s championship winning team who will be more of a contributor this time around. “I know what I’m going into. Freshman year, I was definitely really nervous. But it’s all really exciting.”

C. Milton Wright falls short in otherwise dominant season

The Mustangs entered Tuesday on a stretch as similarly impressive as their opponent. C. Milton Wright was a perfect 14-0 before the loss and hadn’t allowed a goal in four games. But even they couldn’t solve Manchester Valley’s stifling defense and timely offense — the Mustangs allowed as many goals Thursday as they had all season prior to their first loss.

“That’s a tough pill to swallow,” coach Kelsey Lovelace said. “We knew we had our work cut out.”

The season marked a remarkable turnaround. C. Milton Wright went 6-7-1 in 2024 and a year later found itself playing for the program’s sixth state semifinal appearance in school history. Graduating 12 seniors but returning their leading scorer, Lovelace knows it’ll be difficult to replicate this season but is hopeful of what it’ll do for the program’s momentum.

“We’re gonna miss a lot of depth next year,” the coach said. “We return a solid core. We’ll just have a lot of holes that we have to plug.”

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Here’s a roundup of those regional final matchups and a look at what’s ahead for the winners.

Field hockey

The Cougars field hockey team opened a Tuesday night triple header at Fallston high school. Its boys and girls soccer teams also hosted region championship games as the top seeds in their brackets. All three won on home turf.

“Basically every class, you had kids who were getting ready to play that day,” coach Jackie Cummings said, describing the energy at school that afternoon. “It doesn’t happen often.”

For field hockey, Cummings’ squad has gotten used to deep playoff runs. They’re right there again this year after a win over Harford Tech in the 1A North II region final, in which Ava Moffett scored three goals and Layla King added a pair. The Cougars will see Sparrows Point in the state quarterfinals, a team they’ve matched up with three other times over the past two seasons. Fallston won 2-1 back in September, which Cummings has already watched back the film of; 4-3 during last year’s regular season; and 4-0 in last season’s state quarterfinal.

“Being a part of Fallston field hockey, there’s a notion that you have to play to a certain level,” Cummings said. “We try to take the mindset of, if we do our best, we should be able to handle any of our competitors. Now is that always the case? No. It’s not that it’s expected, but they know we should be making a playoff run because we have the talent and we work really hard and that’s the goal of our season.”

Elsewhere, at C. Milton Wright on Tuesday night, the Mustangs beat Bel Air, 3-0, to take the 2A North II region championship. They’ll host Hereford in the state quarterfinals.

Boys soccer

C. Milton Wright, defending 2A state champions, is another step closer to repeating after its victory over Bel Air on Tuesday in the 2A East I region final. Ben Mroz and Owen Davis scored their team’s two goals in the narrow 2-1 win, with Mroz also assisting on Davis’ tally.

The Mustangs went 10-2 in the regular season, opening with six consecutive wins before two losses in a span of three games to Patterson Mill and Hereford. That proved only to be a temporary stumble as C. Milton Wright has now won six consecutive games entering its state quarterfinal matchup. The second-seed in the 2A bracket will host Calvert on Saturday.

Two other Harford County boys soccer teams will be representing the area this weekend. Fallston topped Sparrows Point in the 2A North II region final, led by Levi Tanguay’s two goals. The Cougars host North Caroline. Also, Patterson Mill defeated Harford Tech, 2-0, in the 1A North Region I final and will host Liberty. In the 3A bracket, Aberdeen’s season ended after a 4-0 loss to Towson.

Girls soccer

North Harford’s miracle run continued Tuesday when Mia Honig, who also scored her team’s game-winning penalty kick in the regional semifinal against Bel Air, tapped in a corner kick late in double overtime to clinch the Hawks a region championship and a trip to the state quarterfinals with a win over C. Milton Wright in the 2A East I region final.

“My mind was set on, ‘let’s just get to PKs,’” Hawks coach Chuck Travis said. “The girls start to believe in themselves and understand that, although we’re not the most talented team individually, as a group we are the most disciplined. They’re starting to believe in the system. When we came into the C. Milton Wright game, I heard the girls saying, ‘we can do this.’ Before the Bel Air game, I don’t think they were 100% sure.”

Honig missed time toward the end of the regular season and is still not entirely healthy, Travis said Wednesday, Still, she’s coming through in the brightest moments to lead a team that went 5-6-1 in the regular season, won just two games last year, and is starting four freshmen this playoffs to two games away from a state championship game.

The Hawks will see Kent Island, the top seed in the 2A bracket, in the state quarterfinal Friday.

Elsewhere, Harford Tech cruised past Havre de Grace, 6-0, in the 1A North I region final and is the 3-seed moving forward after reseeding. The Cobras will host Carver A&T in the state quarterfinals. Also, Fallston beat Sparrows Point, 2-1, in overtime to capture the 2A North II region final and will host Century to make it three Harford County girls soccer teams in the state quarterfinals.

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The reigning Harford County champions, their coach believed, had the talent to repeat. It was just a matter of their rising juniors stepping into leadership roles — namely a set of brothers.

The biggest threat to that premonition came late Tuesday evening. The Cobras trailed, 2-1, in the county title game against Fallston, needing to win the final two to retain the championship. Coach Gary Clement preached calmness.

“’We just gotta relax,’” Philip Kozlowski said of what Clement told the huddle. “We just gotta play our game.”

“Do the things we’re good at doing,” Peter Kozlowski added.

Harford Tech won fourth and fifth sets to capture its second consecutive Harford County boys volleyball championship in its third straight appearance in the title game.

“Some things weren’t falling our way,” Clement said. “Then we started getting it, playing intense, and pulled through.”

Fallston took the opening set, 25-23, behind a comeback led by Shaughn Kelly. Down by one late, Kelly sparked a surge that pulled his team ahead by two and maintained that separation until the end. It was similarly close toward the end of the second set before Harford Tech pulled away late. A 19-19 tie became a 25-22 win for the Cobras to even the match.

After closely contested first and second sets, the third was a game of runs.

Harford Tech raced out to a 16-10 lead, which prompted a Cougars coach Bill Stewart timeout. Then his team took six of the next seven points to shrink their deficit to one and draw a Clement stoppage. Fallston took its first lead of the third set at 19-18 and controlled things the rest of the way to clinch a 26-24 win and a 2-1 lead.

The Cobras, sans another late Cougars surge that this time fell short, controlled the fourth set to fend off elimination and force a fifth and final battle. They took 4-0 and 11-7 leads and held that lead in the decisive 15-11 match-clinching victory.

“We needed to get back here,” Peter said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”

Fallston and Harford Tech matched up once in the regular season, an early September bout that the Cougars took in five sets as a part of their 8-0 start to the campaign. After a narrow loss to C. Milton Wright, Fallston went on another winning streak: five consecutive victories entering Tuesday.

Harford Tech similarly cruised through its regular season. That loss to Fallston was its only defeat all year. Clement went back to that film leading up to Tuesday to identify weaknesses and learn what his team did wrong the first time. And, Clement said, that result humbled a group that otherwise was hardly tested all season.

“Having that loss, it helped us refocus,” Clement said.

The Kozlowskis inherited their volleyball skills from their mother, an accomplished player herself who had her boys playing since they were 8 years old. They’re only juniors, yet Clement says they see things on the court even the veteran coach misses, and they’re the source of hope that Harford Tech can make it three consecutive championships in 2026.

“It’s the same group,” Philip said. “We’ve gotten even better.”

Fallston falls just short in impressive season

The Cougars’ offensive strategy is simple: find Kelly.

The ball seems to always make its way to Kelly’s rocket right arm. Then it usually smacks against the opponent’s side of the court. Kelly’s been a force for the Cougars all year and helped them finish the regular season with just one loss and the top seed in the Harford County tournament.

“You gotta get past 29 and 19,” Stewart said, a nod to the Kozlowski brothers. “They’re their two big guns.”

Kelly and Fallston came up just short Tuesday, but it was nonetheless a memorable season almost capped by a county title. Looking to next season, Stewart knows he’ll have to replace several key starters but believes this campaign has the program moving in the right direction.

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“It’s not cold out,” he said. “I’m from Pittsburgh, man.”

Perhaps his legs are showing because, at this point, no one is telling the old school Rust Belt native what to do. He’s leading a team, now 8-0 after Friday’s 50-6 win over Fallston (6-2), that similarly can’t be stopped and plays with a confidence no one in Harford County can match.

Brinkman, who this week was selected as the Ravens’ high school football coach of the week, is in his first season as Edgewood’s head coach but has already earned the respect of his players and opponents alike as the drubbings pile up.

“It always goes back to win and lose with integrity and doing the right things,” Brinkman said. “Our goal is to be 1-0 every week. We got one more to go.”

Edgewood scored twice on defense and special teams, a Kyion Greenwood interception return then a blocked punt scooped up in the end zone. Rams quarterback Michael Robinson ran for a pair of touchdowns and running backs Chris Barnes and Jayden Harvin added one more each. Most of those starters spent the second half on the bench with a running clock.

Harvin’s was a 71-yard score that required tip-toe precision to stay in bounds along his team’s sideline for most of the sprint.

“The whole time, just thinking, ‘Don’t step out of bounds,’” the senior said.

It was especially rewarding for Harvin, Brinkman said, because most of Edgewood’s touchdowns go to others. When the Rams reach the precipice of the goal line, frequently arriving there because of a long Harvin run, it’s often Robinson’s job to punch it in, as was the case again twice Friday.

But Harvin doesn’t care.

“I like seeing my dogs eat,” he said.

Edgewood last week handled C. Milton Wright. Either the Mustangs or Cougars figured to be the Rams’ toughest regular season tests. Instead, both games provided a reminder that Edgewood won’t face a true threat until deep into the state playoffs.

“I have no doubts they’ll get out of the 3A North,” Fallston coach Derrick Krumholtz said. “I’ll be curious to watch them roll through that 3A state round. It’ll be cool to see what they can do.”

Previously cruising, Fallston now searching

Friday’s result is not indicative of Fallston’s season.

The Cougars, 6-1 and winners of six straight entering Friday’s bout with heavyweight Edgewood, figured to give the Rams a fight. But Fallston was without several key starters in the penultimate game of the season, including quarterback Michael Griffin Jr., who underwent season-ending hand surgery this week, giving way to a lopsided defeat.

“I coached his dad 30-something years ago, we’re still friends to this day, and I called him,” Brinkman said. “I feel awful. The kid’s dynamic. My heart breaks for them.”

The Cougars quarterback was terrorizing defenses through seven games this fall. Declan Rebasti started Friday in Griffin’s place. As any offenses with a backup quarterback would, Fallston’s struggled. It punted four times in the first half, which ended with Edgewood leading 36-0, and didn’t score until late in the fourth quarter.

Rebasti tossed a high-arcing ball to senior wide receiver Zach Loewe, who snatched the pass between two Edgewood defenders for the Cougars’ lone score of the night. It put Loewe, already the program’s all-time leader in receiving yards and touchdowns, in a tie for the receptions record. His next catch will give him all three historic marks.

“Before tonight, [Rebasti] was on every special team,” Krumholtz said. “The team loves him, he’s a great kid, we have all the confidence in the world in him. He’s a tough kid, to stand up and take the beating he took tonight and to smile and throw a touchdown pass at the end.”

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And with the game’s return, so comes a new sense of accomplishment for the victors.

The evening’s highlight came in the middle contest. The girls soccer match between Patterson Mill and Harford Tech reached overtime knotted at 1. After a 10 minute extra period went scoreless, penalty kicks were needed to decide a winner. Each side made three of their first five tries. Patterson Mill’s Riley Simmering converted on her team’s sixth attempt, then turned it over to a freshman goalkeeper.

“I’ve taken PKs before, so I just had the mindset of, ‘If I save it, then that’s fantastic, but no hard feelings if I don’t,’” keeper Lucia Teter said. “I gotta stay calm and get off my feet.”

The freshman deflected the Cobras’ last try to seal her team’s win before her teammates swarmed the first-year player near the net to begin a prolonged celebration just a couple of hours after Patterson Mill’s boys team won the day’s opener.

The Huskies swept the UCBAC soccer championships Monday, the boys edging C. Milton Wright, 2-1, before the girls won in penalty kicks. To end the night, C. Milton Wright field hockey topped Fallston, 2-0, to remain undefeated entering the state playoffs.

Patterson Mill girls soccer entered Monday winner of four of its last five games to clinch a division title and reach the conference championship game. The Huskies will soon turn their attention to the state tournament that begins later this week. Although Monday’s result won’t impact seeding, the excitement will persist.

“We’re hungry to get back [to the state championship],” Huskies girls coach Brad Crossley said.

The Patterson Mill boys watched that game unfold from the bleachers. Sophomore Kolton Gibson, assisted by Grayson McLaughlin, opened the scoring for the Huskies midway through the first half of the night’s opener. That 1-0 score held until 23 minutes remained, when Caleb Zerbe netted an insurance goal that came in handy when C. Milton Wright’s Owen Davis scored his team’s first goal nine minutes later the tight finish.

“It’s something they’ll remember,” Huskies boys coach Wes Rich said. “It’s a good highlight.”

Patterson Mill boys soccer lost just once all season, a 3-1 defeat to Bel Air in late September. The Huskies won their next five games entering Monday, and like their counterparts, a UCBAC title should only add to their positive momentum entering the state tournament that begins later this week.

“I think it sets the tone for Patterson Mill,” Zerbe said. “We’ve got some recognition now.”

Then it was the girls’ turn. Harford Tech’s Olivia Marcello scored the game’s first goal just a few minutes into the second period, then a header from Patterson Mill’s Izabella Collins on a corner kick evened the match — the only goals of regulation.

The nightcap was a low-scoring battle that C. Milton Wright took. The Mustangs scored once in the first and third quarters and kept Fallston out of the net in the two-goal victory that caps a perfect 13-0 campaign in which they allowed just four goals all season to go with nine shutout wins.

“I’m happy that they brought it back,” said C. Milton Wright coach Kelsey Lovelace, a Cecil County native who grew up with the former version of the UCBAC championship. “It gives us preparation for states. We’re not just sitting and practicing.”

The UCBAC underwent several structural changes last spring. In addition to the return of a conference championship game, the league went from two divisions that teams could fluctuate between year to year, to three fixed divisions. The three division winners plus a fourth wild card team earned a spot in the UCBAC semifinals last week. Monday’s contests, all featuring exclusively Harford County teams, crowned champions.

For a day, Patterson Mill and C. Milton Wright have these trophies to remember a successful regular season. The looming state playoffs will bring an opportunity for more recognition.

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