While the Midlothian High School boys’ soccer team reached the 2014 VHSL Group 4A state championship, the Nansemond River High School Warriors ensured on Monday that the Trojans wouldn’t get nearly as far this year.

“Nine times out of 10, they might beat us, but it didn’t happen tonight,” NR coach Dustin Tordoff said following his team’s 1-0 home victory in the Region 4A South quarterfinals. “When you show up and you’re ready to go, and you’re willing to put everything you have into the game and lay everything on the line, then most of the time good things happen. And as a coach, that’s the lesson you try to teach, (for) soccer and life.”

Though the Warriors were the No. 1 seed coming out the Ironclad Conference and the Trojans were the No. 2 seed coming out of their own conference, Tordoff said the Warriors were the underdogs “without a doubt.”

“It’s ‘Mighty Midlothian’ — that’s the way they’re referred to,” he said. “They’re a mainstay.”

King’s Fork High School girls’ soccer coach Mike Marston and his team corroborated Tordoff’s characterization as they visited Midlothian on Monday to face the Lady Trojans. Drawing the Lady Bulldogs’ astonishment was the school’s sizable trophy collection, which included hardware honoring the boys’ soccer team.

Tordoff indicated that while the Trojans graduated six players from last year’s team, including a Player of the Year, they were strong again this season and featured a conference Player of the Year in the form of junior Connor Rea.

“Going into the game, we knew we were going to have to play a lot more defense than offense, and so we went with that,” Tordoff said.

But he noted Nansemond River dictated a lot of the play early on Monday.

“We were able to kind of get some momentum, offensive flow into their end of the field, and then we were able to put a goal in, and it really kind of took them for a loop, because they’re not used to getting scored on,” he said.

The goal came early in the game, courtesy of juniors Axel Lopez and Brayan Morales.

“Brayan served in a beautiful cross, and Axel finished with a diving header,” Tordoff said.

About 25 minutes into the first half, momentum seemed to level out between the teams. Tordoff and his staff made a few changes to account for the fatigue factor that comes with playing in 90-degree weather, and this helped increase some of the Warriors’ drive.

Nansemond River played defense for much of the second half.

“We were able to kind of bunker and cut off passing lines and do the best we could to just keep it out of the net, which (our) goalie, Zack (Busch), came up huge in a couple of situations,” Tordoff said.

Also praising the defense in front of Busch, the coach said, “I think Maycol (Reyes), Brandon (Dowden), both of them, probably had a couple of saves — just sliding in, making sure that the ball didn’t take any weird deflections, getting good clearances, just sound defense. It was a full team defensive effort.”

“It was heart,” he added.

The Warriors (12-5-2) are scheduled to face Jamestown High School on Wednesday at Williamsburg’s Sanford B. Wanner Stadium in the Virginia High School League Region 4A South semifinals. The winner qualifies for the state tournament.