The 2008 boy's 4-A soccer playoffs served two purposes for Green Hope. The Falcons viewed the postseason as a chance to put the struggles of the regular season behind them and to do what they couldn’t do last year.

Now, after a 1-0 victory over Millbrook Saturday night in the fourth round, that second place finish in the Tri-Eight Conference, the three regular-season losses and the pair of ties are all history.

The Falcons have worked themselves back to the same point where the 2007 season ended: the 4-A Eastern Regional final.

“We went into the playoffs looking at it like another season,” said Green Hope coach Andrew Chadwick. “It was a new start for us after a regular season where we didn’t play as well as we would have liked to.

"We just went in with the goal of playing six games, just telling ourselves that six games was our goal.”

Green Hope is now two games away from that goal.

The Falcons (19-3-2) will play at New Hanover today at 6:30 p.m. in the East Regional championship match. New Hanover (22-2-1) moved into the state semis with a 1-0 victory over Southern Pines Pinecrest on Saturday night and has outscored its opponents 17-2 in the playoffs, averaging 4.25 goals per outing.

It will be strength-on-strength, because as prolific as New Hanover's offense has been, Green Hope's defense has been just as good, allowing an average of .54 goals per game.

The winner of that game will head to that elusive sixth match — the state championship — this weekend. “They’re seasoned in their ways; they know how to win matches playing their way,” said Millbrook coach Matt Edwards of Green Hope. “They all work together and are on the same page all of them time. They’ve very similar to Broughton in that way.”

The mention of Broughton is somewhat ominous for this year’s Falcon squad. The Caps, who the Wildcats have seen plenty of over the years, ended Green Hope’s season a year ago, taking a 1-0 win in the regionals. Then, Broughton went on to win the state championship.

It’s a path the Falcons hope to emulate this week.

To get that chance, Green Hope first had to get by Millbrook on Saturday. The experienced back defensive lines of both teams controlled much of the match. Millbrook, which gets most of its offense off restarts, found scoring chances in the normal flow of play almost non-existent.

“Our back four starters are all seniors with 12 years of varsity playing experience,” Chadwick said. “They’ve anchored our team for a long time.”

The Falcons, meanwhile, found themselves working hard to create scoring chances against the Wildcats’ aggressive set of fullbacks.

But Green Hope found a way to get on the board. Justin Taylor worked a ball out of the corner to teammate Martin Murphy just inside of the penalty area. Murphy, despite being marked by a Wildcats defender, let loose a hard shot that sailed into the far side of the net 22 minutes into the match.

The Falcons had a few other solid chances to score that they couldn’t convert. But the key to the match was the final defensive stand led by junior goalie Alex Long and senior defenders Zach Steele, Nick Butterly, Logan Paussa and Ryan Steele.

The Wildcats (19-5) finally got their throw-in driven offense going in the final 20 minutes. Long deflected a great header by David Brown — off a Sean Weber throw-in — over the crossbar with 16:05 to play.

With just more than four minutes to go, another long throw by Weber ended up at the foot of teammate Alex Olofson, whose shot was blocked by a pair of Falcons defenders. But the rebound went right to Millbrook junior Connor Karr just a few yards away from the goal. His shot hit the post and bounced safely away.

“Our goalkeeper has been outstanding,” Chadwick said. “He played with great control of his line. We were a hit post away from playing overtime but we got the job done.”