Centennial won the face-off, Harrison Chaires found the net and 33 seconds into their Class 2A/3A state semifinal game against Walkersville, the Eagles had a 1-0 lead.

It was ideal execution and an ideal start. And in an ideal world for Centennial, it would have been the beginning of something big.

But on this day on a wet field at Annapolis High School, Walkersville, and its own high-powered offense, had other plans.

Scoring nine of the game's next 10 goals, the Lions raced out to a 9-2 lead just three minutes into the second quarter and used that momentum to hold on for a 21-11 victory May 16. The loss marked the end of the season for a Centennial team coming off its first regional title since 2005 and the continuation of one for a Walkersville program advancing to its first state title game.

"We went through a lot of quality teams to get to this point, but we simply ran into a juggernaut," Centennial coach Mike Siegert said of Walkersville. "We dug ourselves a hole and it kept getting deeper, which is a credit to them and their execution. Every time we got one, it seemed like they got two."

Walkersville's offense got on the board courtesy of Chad Benford's score just a minute after Chaires' initial tally. And then the flood gates opened. Shaun Baldwin scored four of his six goals during the first 15 minutes, Benford added another and Troy Hubbard, Scott Morris and Brian Schultz each got into the offensive act as well.

Only an unassisted tally by Centennial's Greg Edmunds during the first quarter kept the Lions' run from being unanswered.

"We haven't scored 20 goals in a game until the last two games, 20 last round and 21 today, so we're definitely clicking and it has a lot to do with our starts," Benford said, referencing the team's 20-7 victory over Winters Mill in the 2A/3A West regional final. "The first two minutes last game we were up, 5-0, already and we started good again today. They scored first, but we kept our composure and settled in pretty nicely."

Benford went on to finish with a game-high seven goals, while also registering three assists. Chaires led Centennial with six goals and two assists.

The Eagles were coming off a 14-8 South regional final victory over Reservoir, during which Alex Danner registered six goals, Chaires had three goals and four assists, and Shane Jaeger had two and four of his own. The victory avenged an 8-5 loss to the Gators during the regular season.

"I don't think we were mentally prepared to play (Reservoir) that first time and they're a totally different team than they've been in previous years," Siegert said. "There's a pride factor that goes into it and we were lucky enough to get another shot at them. We played much better this time around."

E-mail Brent Kennedy at bkennedy@patuxent.com.

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