(Enlarge) Wilde Lake's Brian Duff (left) and Alex Driessen defend against Mt. Hebron's Kevin Fitch, who scored the Vikings' second goal on a header. (Staff photo by Matt Roth)

Come playoff time, teams don’t typically need extra motivation. Although, as Atholton’s Christian Villarroel said after the Raiders' 3-1 victory over Centennial in the 3A East regional semifinals, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

By earning the two-goal win Thursday evening, Atholton not only advanced to the regional finals but it also avenged a 3-1 loss to Centennial during the regular season.

“They beat us before and we wanted to get it back,” said Villarroel, who scored two of his team’s goals. “You always like that second chance, especially because we were going through some injuries the last time.”

The payback theme also played itself out in the other half of the 3A East regional bracket, as Mt. Hebron knocked off Wilde Lake,  2-1, after getting shut out by the Wildecats earlier this fall. Atholton will host Mt. HebronTuesday with a berth in the state semifinals on the line.

Atholton wasted little time taking the lead against the Eagles, getting a goal off a header by Alejandro Perez in the opening five minutes. It was nearly a carbon copy of the team’s game against J.M. Bennett, where the Raiders went ahead four minutes in and cruised to a 4-0 win.

“It was really the same thing as last game, we got that first goal and we started sailing,” Atholton coach Roch DeFrances said. “That’s probably the kind of team we are right now, being young and playing without Derek (Chan) we need that kind of impetus to push us through.”

Chan, who’s been out the last three weeks with a broken arm, was the team’s starting sweeper. In his absence, Atholton has tried several different combinations on defense, but it wasn’t until recently that things started clicking again.

Against the Eagles it certainly helped having the lead, which grew to 2-0 just before halftime when Villarroel converted a penalty kick after he was pulled down in the box.

“Those two goals were huge for them because it allowed them to pack it in and make it tough for us to get anything going,” Centennial goalie Aaron Russell said.

Things got worse for the Eagles immediately out of the break when Villarroel scored again less than three minutes into the second half. The Raiders’ senior found a loose ball in the box and fired it between Russell and the crossbar for his 14th goal of the season.

The Atholton advantage remained at three goals until less than two minutes were left on the clock and most of the team’s starters had been pulled. Centennial’s Spencer Tarason struck a hard shot into the right corner of the net to spoil the shutout.

Mt. Hebron, which was playing without captain Aidan Hoolachan because he picked up two yellow cards the game before against River Hill, got off to a fast start of its own against Wilde Lake.

David Butko scored from the left post just five minutes in for a 1-0 lead. Then, in stoppage time of the first half, Kevin Fitch bumped the lead up to two on a header.

“The early lead was big, but we all felt like we needed another one before half. They were coming at us all game and we knew one goal wasn’t going to hold up,” Fitch said.

Wilde Lake did indeed come roaring back after intermission, playing with an energy that had only shown up in spurts during the first 40 minutes. With 26:59 left on the clock, Saleh Hady translated that effort into a breakaway goal that cut the Wildecat deficit in half.

“The first-half team, I don’t know where that came from … maybe we got too far ahead of ourselves. But we’ve seen that kind of thing all year,” Wilde Lake coach Matt Pickett said. “We just needed to be comfortable and start playing. We looked great in the second half, and I just don’t know where that was at the beginning of the game.”

Over the final 25 minutes, Wilde Lake peppered the Mt. Hebron net with eight more shots and had the ball in its offensive half of the field nearly the entire time. But the ball never got past Vikings goalie Greg Pease (11 saves) and Mt. Hebron walked away with the win.

“We were really spent physically, emotionally, and spiritually from that (double overtime) River Hill game, and I think it really showed halfway through that second half,” Mt. Hebron coach Mike Linsenmeyer said. “The kids were just dead and yet somehow they found a way to win that game. All the credit in the world to Wilde Lake because they were really dominating that last 20 minutes and we were lucky to get out of there with a win.”

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