The King’s Fork High School girls’ soccer team has been knocking on the door of an Ironclad Conference tournament championship the past two seasons, but that property has belonged to Nansemond River High School, and the Lady Warriors locked the door once again Friday night.

They defeated the Lady Bulldogs 3-2 in the final for the second straight year.

After falling to King’s Fork for the first time in school history earlier this season, the Lady Warriors prepared copiously in anticipation of Friday’s title game rematch at Christopher Newport University.

“We’ve been practicing for two weeks our game plan, so they knew it from the backside of their hand, they knew exactly where to go, what to do,” NR coach Kurt Straub said.

He altered his team’s defense, employing a sweeper deep in Lady Warriors territory. Then he made the bold move of putting star sophomore striker Daijah Norris back on defense to match the speed of the Lady Bulldogs’ own star sophomore striker, Cydney Nichols.

“It was rough when I told Daijah,” Straub said. “I said, ‘Hey, you’re not going to play forward. You’re going to mark Cydney,’” but Norris did not put up a fight against the move, and she proved to be a key difference-maker in limiting the King’s Fork standout.

Nichols managed to score a goal off of a free kick outside of the box in the first half, but Norris had effectively neutralized that goal beforehand by scoring one of her own when she took a penalty kick.

“I think I handled it pretty well,” Norris said of her defensive assignment.

Handling things well on offense for Nansemond River was freshman Indiah Hunter. She scored in the first half to help give her team a 2-1 lead at halftime.

Explaining how the goal came together, Hunter said, “The defender passed it back, and it was a bad ball, and I hustled. So, I got it in.”

Then, with a little under 11 minutes remaining in the game, she broke through King’s Fork’s defense and scored what proved to be the contest’s deciding goal.

The Lady Bulldogs trailed 3-1, the same score they won with when they faced Nansemond River during the regular season, and Straub noted King’s Fork responded in the same way his own team did in that prior meeting — with near misses on offense.

“We hit the post twice when we played them at their place,” Straub said, adding that, on Friday, the Lady Bulldogs “hit the post twice, so it could have very easily been a tied ballgame.”

With 4:45 remaining, King’s Fork sophomore Rebecca Washburn did put one past the goal posts from about 20 yards out to make it a one-goal game again.

“We didn’t adjust anything during the game, except for when they scored that second goal with about five minutes left,” Straub said. “I stacked my defense — played three stoppers instead of two.”

The trio included sophomore Starr Robinson, freshman Kayleigh McQueen and senior Courtney DeLucia, and they successfully held off the Lady Bulldogs.

Straub saw the state of both teams’ injury reports as a factor in why Nansemond River avenged its early season loss to KF.

“They’re a little banged up, but if you look at our team, we’re healthy, 100 percent,” he said.

King’s Fork had everyone back, but the inability of players to maintain conditioning while sidelined by injury played a role, particularly on the CNU field, which is significantly larger than the usual high school pitch.

Nevertheless, Lady Bulldogs coach Mike Marston saw a lack of effort as his team’s downfall.

“There were times that they just outworked us and wanted the ball more,” he said. “They really only had about three or four chances the whole game. Our defense didn’t adjust quick enough, and they ended up taking advantage of us getting out of sorts a few times.”

Marston did praise the defensive play of King’s Fork freshman Ashley Bido, while Straub also highlighted the defense of NR senior Desiree Patterson and junior Kendall Webster.

Referring to his sophomore attacking center midfielder, Straub said, “Kamarie (Jewette) held my team together.”

Nansemond River (11-5-1) will host Monday’s Region 4A South quarterfinal game against Hanover High School, while King’s Fork (14-3) will travel to face Midlothian High School.