Host Towson scored a pair of goals in each half and its stingy defense held Thomas Wootton without a shot on goal for more than 74 minutes as the Generals cruised to a 4-0 victory in the Class 3A state quarterfinals.

It was the seventh straight loss for the Generals (14-1), who advance to next weekend’s state semifinals. This will be their first appearance in the semifinals since 2018.

“That is our curse; we couldn’t get past the quarter-final curse. “We finally did it this year and any team that’s going to do it is this team,” Towson coach Lauren Hanley said.

The day after Halloween, the curse was lifted as the Generals played a perfect game with no scary plays on the defensive side of the field.

“We work really well together on the back line and I feel like outside of soccer, we’re all really close and it’s really easy to communicate and do everything really in sync,” said sophomore defender Amelia Culbertson.

Culbertson and sophomore goalie Madden Sysantos are the youngest defenders on a defense spearheaded by seniors Koto Davis, Corinne Windish and Lila Minton.

“We all work so hard on the outside that we can trust each other well and we all know someone is going to do it, so if you make a mistake there’s nothing to worry about because we’re always going to make it,” Culbertson said.

Sysantos only had to make two saves, coming from long shots from Isabella Caban and Bianca Diamond in the final six minutes.

“[The defense] it’s been crazy this year and I think it’s because they’ve been playing together for so long that the trust and the communication is there,” Hanley said. “They seem to know where each other is headed.”

It was the 12th shutout of the season for the Generals and they got plenty of help from the midfield and attack.

“They won it in midfield. “That’s where the game was won today,” Wootton coach Chris Thompson said. “We didn’t have a lot of good combinations there and we couldn’t put anything together going forward and then we couldn’t get any shots off.”

Towson’s offense picked up from the start and the scoring started when Katherine Lohse assisted Gia Celenza on the first goal just seven minutes into the game.

The final three goals involved senior captain Ariana Defino.

The first was an assist from a corner kick to Tatiyana Chase, who was unmarked at the near post with six minutes remaining in the first half.

“Just when we got into the last 18, we kind of knew that you have that killer instinct to get the ball into the box, either put it in front of the goal or put it to a teammate, so I just knew where I was. and my spatial awareness that I have to get it there,” Defino said of his mindset before the corner kick.

Defino received a perfectly placed corner kick by Davis for the game’s third goal early in the second half to give the Generals a 3-0 lead. He assisted Celenza less than 10 minutes later for the fourth goal.

“That’s what’s great about this team,” Hanley said. “Every game is like someone else stepping up and [Defino] was chosen as captain for a reason. He put in the work, like in the off-season, all season long. He was tireless and worked really hard, so the fact that he got through it is amazing, I’m very proud of him.”

“Honestly, we just know how tough this match is and we know that if we really focus and give everything, we can advance to the semifinals. “We had a team lunch before this and everyone got together and got ready for the game,” Defino said. “When I stepped onto the court, I could feel all the encouragement from the girls and we were ready to give it our all.”

Meanwhile, Wootton (10-4-1) appeared defensive and never recovered.

“This was probably one of the worst games we played all year,” Thompson said. “We were sluggish at first. We got into a hole and couldn’t get out of it and they were very good, they were very good.”

When Culbertson wasn’t busy stopping potential counterattacks and clearing the ball on the defensive side of the court, he liked what he saw on the offensive side.

“It was amazing to watch our team,” he said. “It was amazing to watch everyone work together so well because the ball was boom, boom, boom, everywhere, like everyone knew what they were doing. We are so in sync as a team because we love each other so much and it’s like a dream team, like this is our year, we’re going all out.”

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