Published: November 08, 2007 11:09 am         

At Northern, it hasn't come by Accident

ACCIDENT

The wind howled all night.

Snow flurries marked the start of the game and snow showers flew at the end.

The thermometer read 33 degrees when it was over. The second game of the soccer doubleheader was still 20 minutes from starting.

Fans with multiple layers of clothing, gloves, ski caps, scarves and more watched as players on the field in shorts played the most important game of their season.

Global warming? The Inconvenient Truth is that the soccer season needs to end sooner. The bad weather wasn't a fluke thing Tuesday night. It seems to make an appearance almost every postseason, and championship games shouldn't be played in such frigid conditions.

Of course, both the Northern and Mountain Ridge girls soccer teams had to battle the same elements, so it wasn't unfair. The winner was Northern. But a close second was likely the coffee and hot chocolate sales at the concession stand.

I'm no Doug Hill, but the wind chill calculator says that based on the 33-degree air temperature and a sustained 20-mile per hour wind, the wind-chill factor was 8.3 degrees at the end of the game.

Everyone looked cold. Even in the press box. But everyone wasn't.

"I wasn't cold at all," said Northern sophomore forward Adria Graham. Scoring the game-winning goal can have that kind of effect on a person. "We're used to it. We adjusted to it. Last year we played a couple of games in the snow."

They're used to the weather going south in a hurry at Northern. But what they're also becoming used to are region championship games and titles. In just the last seven months:

* The baseball team hosted the region championship game, won it, finished runner-up in the state tournament, and set a school record for wins in a season with 22.

* The girls soccer team hosted the region championship game, won it, and is off to its first state tournament having set a school record for wins in a season with 14;

* The boys soccer team hosted the region championship game, finished runner-up in the region and set a school record for wins in a season with 15;

* Ryan Bowser won the region championship in boys cross country, and will try to win a second straight state title this weekend.

The baseball team won the area championship, the girls soccer team is defending area co-champion, and the boys soccer team was tied with Mountain Ridge for the No. 1 spot in the most recent rankings.

These are pretty good times for Northern High School athletics. And while it's all happened near Accident, none of it's happened by accident.

"Winning the region title didn't happen tonight," coach John Milbourne said after the 2-1 win. "It began three months ago with all the hard work, sweat and effort from the first day of practice."

Maybe the warmest souls at Tuesday night's game were the ones wearing the fewest clothes - the players - because they were running around most of the night.

Except for the goalkeepers.

"I was pretty cold," said Northern junior goalie Justine Harvey. "You try to move around and stay as warm as you can. I tried to stretch out and stay loose as much as I could.

"When it's this windy it's very stressful for a goalie. You try to get the ball out and the wind takes it. You want to keep it close to the ground. Being against that kind of a wind is really a big disadvantage."

To qualify for the state tournament, the Huskies had to beat an awfully good Mountain Ridge team. And they knew it.

"Mountain Ridge is a great team, and very well coached," Milbourne said.

The Miners finished 10-5-2 but the record can be misleading. Three of the losses came in one-goal games. Three were to region champions (Class 1A West Northern, twice; Class 2A West, Century), and one was to a team that won two league titles and was unbeaten before being beaten, by Mountain Ridge, in the playoffs (Allegany).

"I'm proud of the players and the season they had. We had a nice group of kids who had a very good season," said Miners coach Martha Mauzy. "And, no matter what, they set the benchmark for Mountain Ridge girls soccer. They'll always be the first Mountain Ridge team."

Things just didn't fall Mountain Ridge's way. How many times does a team go unbeaten and allow only one goal in league play but not win the league championship? That's what happened in the Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference. Mountain Ridge was 5-0-2 and runner-up to Allegany, which was 6-0-1.

Northern now faces Glenelg, which beat South Carroll 2-1 for the South Region championship, in the Class 1A State Semifinals on Saturday, at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, at 7:30 p.m.

"To be the first Northern team to play in the state tournament is great. We're just ecstatic about it and ready to win," said Graham.

Two years ago, the Huskies were 4-11-1. Now, they are two wins from a state championship. They are 26-4-2 the last two seasons, with the 26 wins the most of any area team during that span. They have a seven-game winning streak and are 12-1 in their last 13 games.

Harvey said a number of the players had this year in their sights for a long time.

"It's amazing ... this is the best team we've had. And since middle school a bunch of us have been saying that this would be our year ... that this would be the year we'd get to the state tournament. And it turns out that it is!"

Contact Mike Mathews at mmathews@times-news.com.