Like the effects kryptonite has on Superman, South River’s boys soccer team proved unbeatable this season, except when facing perennial powerhouse and Anne Arundel County rival Severna Park.

The No. 6 Seahawks ran roughshod over the rest of their Anne Arundel foes this fall en route to the county championship. They continued that dominance with a commanding 5-0 victory against Broadneck in the Class 4A East Region II semifinals Friday.

That supremacy was not to be seen, however, when South River faced the fourth-ranked Falcons this fall, with the latest a 2-0 decision Tuesday night in the 4A East Region II final in Edgewater.

Severna Park (15-2 overall) used an own goal in the first half, a rebounded strike by Brad Dulin in the second half and a stingy defensive effort from the team’s back four to punch its ticket to this weekend’s 4A state quarterfinals.

The Falcons defeated South River, 3-1, during the regular season.

“They’re just a hard team that we don’t match up well with,” said South River coach Marlyn Argueta, whose squad finished at 14-2-1. “They’re fast (and) good at soccer; it’s the toughest team we’ve played all year.”

The Seahawks were the more dangerous team to start the contest with Hunter Marsden and Cole Mastal challenging Falcons goalkeeper Matt Schisler, who was true to the test to keep the contest scoreless until the 27 minutes, 25 second mark of the first half.

That’s when Falcons left wing Andrew Handen dribbled past his defender and deep into the penalty area, where he crossed the ball from left to right. The pass was initially slowed by the South River defense, but the Seahawks were ultimately unable to keep the ball out of the back of the net for a 1-0 Severna Park lead.

The Falcons, who seemed to win the majority of the 50-50 balls throughout much of the first half, took that one-goal lead into halftime and proceeded to hand the Seahawks only their second shutout of the season, the first being a scoreless draw with Bel Air back on Sept. 19.

South River outscored its previous six opponents, 21-0.

“I really have to give to Peter (Saunders) for clearing the balls out of the box,” Severna Park center back Henry Saunders said. “Peter did a really good job today. We have really good communication. That (first goal) was huge but we really needed to get that second one, which we got later in the game.”

The credit for the timely shutout falls largely on the shoulders of the team’s center back duo of Evan Souder and Henry Saunders, who bracketed Seahawks striker Maximus Cerulla, who fired home a total of five goals in his last two matches, along with wing backs Peter Saunders and Owen Muldoon.

“I think we were really sound defensively,” Severna Park coach Ryan Parisi said. “We made it really difficult for them and capitalized on opportunities that we had. We knew everything kind of wants to go through (Cerulla) and it’s really hard to do anything if you never get the ball. (The strategy was) just clogging up those lanes and the spaces, so he couldn’t get entry passes into him where he could kind of initiate their attack.”

While the Seahawks’ offense was bottled up, the Falcons saw lightning strike twice as they scored their second goal at the same time as the first half (27:25). This time Dulin gathered a saved-but-not-corralled shot by Jeffrey Chukwu and fired cleanly into the left side of the goal for the final 2-0 advantage.

“It was just a lucky bounce,” Dulin said. “It came out, (and he) just finished it. Great team effort. There’s no secret (on how they secured the sweep of South River). It’s just a lot of hard work. Defensively, we worked a lot on set-piece defending. We did that terrificly tonight. Three games to the championship, so we have to win each game one at a time.”

South River pressed the Falcons’ defense for much of the rest of the match, finishing with four corners and a bevy of second-half shots, largely on set pieces, but the team’s chances either went wide, over the goal or were cleared by Severna Park.

“We had a great season,” Argueta said. “We were county champions and made the region final. There’s nothing to hang out heads about. We just lost to a good soccer team. It happens in soccer. The key is getting the first goal. That propelled them to do better, and it kind of slowed us down a little bit.”

CLASS 4A EAST REGION CHAMPIONSHIP

NO. 3 SEVERNA PARK 2, NO. 6 SOUTH RIVER 0

Severna Park 1 1 - 2

South River 0 0 - 0

Goals: Severna Park - own goal, Brad Dulin.

Saves: Severna Park - Peter Saunders 5. South River - Jay Jenkins 1.