varsity.roanoke.com

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Hidden Valley's Maddy Elder dives to the ground after a loose ball during the state championship game against Broad Run.

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Hidden Valley's Lacey Todd (15) fights for control of a ball against Broad Run's Whitney Church. Hidden Valley lost to Broad Run 3-0.

RADFORD -- Just when Hidden Valley's girls soccer team thought it finally had slain the last Spartan in 2009, the Titans were tricked.

Twenty-four hours after dispatching the Salem Spartans in the VHSL Group AA semifinals, Hidden Valley found itself matched with the Broad Run Spartans in Sunday's championship game at Radford University.

Broad Run might have shared a nickname with Hidden Valley's River Ridge District rival, but on the field these Spartans were in another league.

Broad Run -- which has five players headed to Division I colleges this fall -- ran its two-year unbeaten streak to 48 games and won its second straight Group AA championship with a 3-0 victory over the Titans.

"That's a really good soccer team right there," first-year Hidden Valley coach Will Krause said. "We have not seen that caliber of a team all year long. When you play somebody like that, you've got to have 80 minutes of your top-notch soccer.

"When you've got a team loaded like that, that's a lot to overcome."

Senior goalkeeper Caitlin Hunter -- a UNC Wilmington recruit -- set a VHSL record with her 63rd career shutout and her 20th of the season for Broad Run (23-0-1).

Hunter could have taken a trip to the concession stand while the ball was in play. Broad Run's defense limited Hidden Valley (21-3-1) to so few opportunities that the Spartans goalkeeper needed to make just one save all day.

Where was Hidden Valley's offense?

"I don't know," said Titans senior forward Maddy Elder, a Clemson recruit. "We ran out of steam. They came out a lot harder than us. We didn't have that many opportunities."

Broad Run, led by Florida-bound midfielder Holly King, kept the ball in the Titans' end of the field most of the first half. Freshman Erin Brady scored on a cross from Kelly Evans in the 15th minute for a 1-0 lead.

Time after time, Broad Run outsprinted Hidden Valley to balls in the open field.

"We needed to check to the ball more and be there first," sophomore defender Elizabeth Stump said.

Thanks to two big defensive plays by Stump, the Titans appeared poised to hold the Spartans to the lone goal by halftime. Instead, Broad Run's Whitney Church broke free and poked an easy shot past Hidden Valley keeper Anna Romeiser in the final minute of the half for a 2-0 lead that seemed cavernous.

"That second goal right before the half took all the air out of us," Krause said.

Arkansas recruit Valerie Powell had the final goal for Broad Run, a school located a stone's throw from the Washington Redskins headquarters in Ashburn. Romeiser made several acrobatic saves in the final 40 minutes to prevent further damage.

It was an all-too-familiar scenario for Hidden Valley, which fell to Broad Run 4-1 in last year's semifinals.

"This was more competitive than last year's game," Krause said. "I told them all year long all I wanted from them was effort, and that's what they gave me in the second half."

Elder was a member of Hidden Valley's 2006 Group AA championship team and was one of only four seniors on this year's squad. "We're definitely on the right track," Elder said. "We competed with them. I don't think that's the problem. We just couldn't finish."

Broad Run's victory closed the book on a season that was extended by one day after rain postponed Friday's semifinals and forced championship play on Sunday for the first time since 2004.

"My girls always make fun of me because when something happens I always say, 'It's a sign.'" Broad Run coach Claire Collins said.

"We leave Thursday and they come up with these tee-shirts that they had made the night before. I had no clue what it was. There was a quote from the movie, 'Any Given Sunday.' Then we stay an extra day and we play on Sunday. I said, 'OK, that's a sign.' They can make fun of me, but sometimes these things, they do play out."