Green Hope's run cut short in final

CARY -- It wasn't the ending Green Hope had envisioned, falling 4-0 in the NCHSAA 4-A state championship game to Greensboro Page, which finished unbeaten at 22-0-2.

But it also wasn't the ending anybody else expected three months ago.

Few expected Chapel Hill to reach the 3-A final either, but Jamie Dell nailed a free kick two minutes into sudden death overtime to give the Tigers a 2-1 semifinal vicory over previously undefeated Jacksonville.

"I was just listening to my coaches - just give it a chance, put it on goal," Dell said. "That's what I tried to do. Luckily I saw the keeper staying behind the wall, where he couldn't see it. So if I just put it on the outside of the wall, I knew it had a good chance of going in."

Chapel Hill plays Marvin Ridge today at 10 a.m. at the WakeMed Soccer Park for the 3-A championship.

Green Hope, despite advancing to five of the last six East Region finals, hadn't gone to the state title game since 2001. After losing eight seniors from last year's team to play college soccer, it wasn't supposed to win the conference championship, much less be in the state championship.

But Green Hope (19-5-2) got red hot in the middle of the season, fueled by the jelling of players learning new positions and a committed effort to improvement. The Falcons went unbeaten in 18 consecutive games before the championship game loss.

But the Pirates of Page were a buzzsaw to the Falcons' momentum. Seniors Andrew Lovejoy and Glen Long - both headed to UNC next year on athletic scholarships - teamed to score four goals.

Lovejoy's hat trick earned him MVP honors for the championship match.

"We've exceeded expectations; we've played really well. And Page was a great team tonight. If [Lovejoy] is not the player of the year, I would be surprised," Green Hope coach Andrew Chadwick said.

"He was fantastic."

Lovejoy put Page on top just 11:27 into the match, juking a defender to the ground before letting rip a blast from 17 yards away in the right corner.

He torched the Falcons again just 5:10 later when, after winning a 50-50 ball following multiple deflections, he turned and fired just outside of the top of the box. The ball hit diving goalkeeper James Earle in the mitts, but it glanced off and twirled backward into the goal.

"I didn't think we were tight, we seemed pretty loose," Chadwick said. "But it just seemed like balls were hitting off our shins and out of bounds and [it was] just not a very good technical night."

In the second half, Long put Page up 3-0 on a penalty kick after Green Hope's Andrew Wolschlag was whistled for a foul in the box with 34:15 left.

Things grew testy as players from both teams got tangled up late in the second. After some yelling and pushing, players from both sides received yellow cards, and an object thrown from the Green Hope student section hit a Page player.

Cooler heads had prevailed by the time Page got its fourth goal. Running down the left flank, Lovejoy took a pass from midfield and hit a low liner into the right side with 20 minutes left.

"[Page] played great, and we had our worst game of the year in the final," Chadwick said. "If we play a decent, game it's not a blowout, but it's a 4-nil blowout in the end, and that's hard for our kids to swallow," Chadwick said.