APEX -- Daniel Leonard, the Apex High PA announcer at Cougar Stadium, was so excited after Apex goals on Wednesday that he twice announced Parker Wilson’s name as Wilson Parker.

Leonard corrected himself and apologized for the mix-up both times, and he got it right the third time Wilson was involved in a goal. But the PA man and the rest of the Cougar contingent had every reason to be bursting with joy.

No. 2 Apex ousted No. 3 Greensboro Page 9-3 in their semifinal showdown, and the Cougars earned a berth in Saturday’s NCHSLA 4-A state championship game. They will play Chapel Hill at 7 p.m. at Duke University’s Koskinen Stadium.

“It’s a huge accomplishment,” said Apex coach John Hayden, who leads the Cougars back to the title game for the first time since 2005, when Apex won it all. “It’s very hard just to get to this game and have the kind of season we’ve had. We’ve been in this game and haven’t won and haven’t played well. We were one goal away [last year] and it didn’t work out. To be on top, it’s great.”

Apex (20-3) is playing in the final thanks to its defense and the way it bottled up Page (13-3). The Pirates entered the night averaging 14.84 goals per game and they had scored at least 10 goals in each of the previous 15 games this spring. The Cougars allowed double digit goals only three times all season, and in their previous three games, they’d given up a total of 11.

They packed in around the goal and forced Page to take low-quality shots from distance, the vast majority of which were either way off the mark or saved by Apex goalie Emil Weiss.

“Defensively, we keep it really tight,” said Apex attacker Joe Nugent, who scored two goals and had one assist. “We’ve got a great kid in goal right now. He’s a freshman and he’s stepping up really big.”

Weiss had nine saves. Page counterpart, Bryan Romaine, was no slouch either. He made 12 saves and was responsible for keeping the game close for the Pirates.

As good as Weiss was in the crease, the game-changing play occurred when he got involved in the attack.

With Apex leading 2-1 – thanks to goals by Will Doyle (three goals) and Nugent – and the first quarter winding down, Weiss left his crease to get a loose ball. Once he got possession, he took off running up the field.

“I thought I could kill the time,” Weiss said. “We had like 20 seconds left.”

As he kept running, he kept attracting defenders who gladly and incessantly smacked him with their sticks trying to get the ball back. But Weiss kept getting around them. As he got toward midfield, he hopelessly flung the ball down the field.

Somehow, teammate Thomas Gregory (goal, three assists) came down with it. He found Nugent streaking toward the Page goal, and Nugent tucked it in with 3.7 seconds on the clock.

“That kills their momentum when you get a goal like that at the end of the quarter,” Nugent said.

Page coach Evan Smith said that play was deflating for his team, as was a sequence earlier in the period when the Pirates hit the crossbar twice in less than 10 seconds.

Apex knocked the Pirates down even more when Gregory and Connor Tyo scored twice in 43 seconds to put the Cougars up 5-1 midway through the second quarter.

Apex seized control of the game for good a minute into the second half when Doyle scored an unassisted goal to put Apex up 6-1.

Kane Ateshian, Wilson (goal, two assists) and Doyle followed with three more scores the rest of the way, helping Apex to get back to the state final, where they'll have a chance to avenge an 11-9 loss to Chapel Hill on April 30.

“Apex did one heck of a job,” Page’s Smith said. “My hat’s off to them. They played great tonight and they deserve everything they got.”