The Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School girls soccer team is the two-time defending Maryland state champion. All season long, they have been in pursuit of the state's first ever 4A three-peat.

For at least 40 minutes on Thursday, that possibility seemed to be a long shot.

The Barons traveled to Silver Spring to play the Montgomery Blair Blazers in the 4A regional semifinal, a position in which the Blazers have found themselves for three straight seasons now.

With their sites set on dashing B-CC's hopes of making Maryland history, Blair came out dominant. The Blazers successfully kept the ball out of B-CC's possession for nearly the entire first half, besting the Barons in shots on goal by a 10-1 mark over the first 40 minutes.

Two of those 10 shots resulted in goals for Blair, the first of which came in the 20^th minute off of a penalty kick by Jamie Kator. Blair's second scoreboard amendment occurred 13 minutes later when senior Sofia Reed scored from 25 yards out for her 15^th goal of the season.

Up 2-0 at the break, and with all the momentum in their sails, the Blazers appeared poised to unseat the Barons for the first time since 2007.

The game however, proved to be a tale of two halves.

In the 57^th minute of play, senior Vic Gersh put one in from close range, making the score 2-1.

The remaining 23 minutes were dominated by B-CC, who simply would not relinquish the ball to Blair long enough for them to get the opportunity to try to regain their two-goal advantage.

Junior Hannah Levin tied the game in the 68^th minute with a goal off of a rebound to tie the score, and senior leader Alex Doll sealed the match with just three minutes to play with a header off a corner kick, giving the Barons the 3-2 advantage.

The Barons will now play the winner of Walter Johnson-Churchill in the 4A West regional championship.

"That's experience. That's a team that's been there — state champions two years in a row," Blair coach Robert Gibb said after the loss. "I told the girls at halftime, 'They're going to come at you with guns blazing in the second half. We need to keep our game.' I think we maybe panicked a little bit thinking 'We're ahead of B-CC 2-0.' … We just didn't sustain enough offense in the second half."

Despite Blair's lull over the final 40 minutes, B-CC coach Rob Kurtz was nothing but complimentary of the Blazers.

"Blair is an amazing team. I actually think they are one of the best teams we have played the last couple of seasons," he said. "Kator is outstanding. Sofia Reed is one of the best players. We had a game plan for them, but they're just tough."

According to Kurtz, it was his team's halftime talk that sparked the turnaround.

"We weren't really making the right passes in the first half with the right scenarios," he said. "I think the key was Alex and Vic. Vic said at halftime 'We can do this.'… I was nervous obviously and I tried to come up with a motivating halftime speech to get them going, and luckily enough they responded and we move on. It's an eye opener, but I think this game is going to help us tremendously as we prepare for the regional final."

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