By Jeff Nelson
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, November 16, 2008

CATONSVILLE, Md., Nov. 15 -- With the go-ahead goal in Saturday night's 4A championship game tantalizingly within his reach, Bowie's Dylan Thompson needed only to remain persistent to put his team ahead.

Luckily for him, that attribute comes naturally by now.

Three of the past four years, the Bulldogs were beaten in the state semifinals. Yet this group has kept coming back, eager to reclaim the program's past glory from an era before they were born.

Mirroring his team's recent past, Thomson failed to put home Bowie's second goal from close range midway through the second half, and when he got the rebound, he failed again. Undaunted, the junior used all of his 5-foot-4 frame to convert yet another rebound.

"I just kept on trying," said Thompson, after Bowie's 2-1 victory over Perry Hall at UMBC Stadium. "And I jumped up and headed it in."

The championship is Bowie's first since the program won seven titles during a stretch from 1978 to 1991.

The Bulldogs made it back to the championship game in 1997 and 2000 but lost both games and hadn't played for a title again until Saturday night.

Of all the close calls, last year's semifinal loss was especially painful.

"We really felt confident in our team and we lost again," senior Joshua Patterson said. "And we lost handily, too. And we knew it would be tough to get back again, much less get past the semifinals."

Bowie (18-0) finally did that by beating Severna Park last Saturday, 1-0, and Patterson staked the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead in the 42nd minute by heading in a rebound after junior Brian Graham's free kick forced a spectacular save.

At that point, the Bulldogs tried to follow what they call a "hard-five rule," which states that anything can happen right after a goal, so "you have a hard five minutes you can't let up," Bowie Coach Richard Kirkland explained.

But that rule did not work. Nineteen seconds after their goal, Bowie allowed one to Perry Hall (17-3).

Later, after Thompson scored with 27 minutes left, the Bulldogs faced several strong attacks by the Gators. This time, however, they did not allow the equalizer.

"When the guys came back with the second [goal]," Kirkland said, "they were persistent enough not to let another one in."

Bowie 2, Perry Hall 1

In the Right Place: Bowie's Brian Laufer and Mamoud Sesay both stopped shots in the box during the final 15 minutes.

Standing Out: Despite graduating six starters, Bowie could be back next year behind Brian Graham, a highly recruited junior who distinguished himself as the best player on the field with his exceptional speed and an array of ball skills.