BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity soccer team’s magical run continued this week with a 3-0 win over Northeast in the second round of the state 3A-South region tournament.
Last week, the Seahawks took the Bayside Conference championship with a dramatic 5-4 sudden death overtime win over Queen Anne’s, but had little time to celebrate. Decatur earned the top seed in the state 3A-South Section I tournament and a first round bye. Northeast was seeded fifth in the sectional and beat another Bayside team, Bennett (4) in penalty kicks last week to advance.
Decatur hosted Northeast on Tuesday and pulled out a 3-0 win to advance to the sectional despite a tight, well-played game. The first half ended in a scoreless tie despite both teams having great opportunities. In the second half, the Seahawks finally broke through on a goal by Jillian Petito with just over 24 minutes remaining. Petito scored four of her team’s five goals in the Bayside title game last week.
Decatur added a second goal by Payton VanKirk on a nice corner kick by Lexi McDonough with just over five minutes left in the game to make it 2-0. McDonough added a third and final goal with just about three minutes remaining to secure the 3-0 win. With the win, the Seahawks advanced to the sectional final against Northern, which beat Huntingtown in its opening round game.