In the first year of the three-class soccer state tournament, the result remained the same for the George Washington girls soccer team.

The Patriots used a strong first half to advance to the state tournament for the eighth straight season, earning a 4-1 home win over Parkersburg in the Class AAAA, South Division co-final at Edwards Field.

GW (19-2-1) will play in the semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 6 at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex in Beckley with opponent and time to be determined.

“It’s always great to be in the state tournament,” GW coach Ali Sadeghian said. “It’s great to advance and move forward. The new format is great. It doesn’t really matter who we play. You’re going to have to go through the best teams at this point.”

In year’s past, there were only two classes (AAA, and AA/A) in the state tournament. Class AAAA was added this season with a North and South Division, consisting of 10 schools each.

GW took a quick 1-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. Madison Rothwell scored a goal off an assist from Ellie Pray with 31:19 left in the first half.

Less than four minutes later, the Patriots extended their lead to 2-0, giving them some cushion when Mia Lough scored off a long strike and assist from Lexi Blanchard with 27:33 until halftime.

Later in the half, GW seemingly put the game away on a goal by Elizabeth Blanchard off an assist from Lough to take a 3-0 lead with 7:34 remaining.

The Patriots, the top seed in the South Regional, defeated fourth seed Parkersburg 5-2 on Sept. 8 so being the favorite, Sadeghian was happy to get off to a quick start.

“It was great to score those early goals,” Sadeghian said. “We work and practice on that with trying to put the games away as soon as possible, and we did that in the first half.”

In the second half, Parkersburg (14-5-3) wouldn’t go away quietly. The Big Reds got on the scoreboard to cut the deficit to 3-1 on a goal by Kayla Morrow off an assist by Hailey Warman with 31:24 left in the game.

Parkersburg had two other good shots on goal to make the score even closer with 27 and 20 minutes remaining, but GW made a pair of saves to withstand the rally.

“We had a lot better effort in the second half,” Parkersburg coach Jarric Hoskins said. “We scored a really good goal, and it created chances and momentum for us. You could see the confidence grow. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”

GW was able to tack on a late goal by Lough, her second of the game, from an assist from Pray with 1:48 remaining to close the scoring at 4-1.

Lough continued her solid play for the Patriots, scoring her 33rd goal of the season. She also has 18 assists with both being team highs.

Sadeghian was proud of Lough as well as the great balance with having three separate girls score goals.

“Mia does her part, and she is phenomenal, but she is not the only girl who can score for us,” Sadeghian said. “We have others who score as well, and this is one of our better offensive teams we’ve had in a long time. We have great balance.”