ASHLAND – The way things started it would have been easy for the Ashland boys soccer team to have counted itself out of Friday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class D final at the high school’s boys field.

Instead, the top-ranked Hornets rallied.

After a disallowed goal and an early lead for the opposition, Ashland scored four goals in the first half, including two 26 seconds apart, for a 5-2 triumph over No. 2 Machias and the team’s first regional crown since 1997.

“We were mad, we were down, but we came back to win it,” said Ashland senior Tyler Cote, who scored two goals. “Our defense was outstanding, our offense put away the shots, and we didn’t get down on each other. We stayed tight.”

Coach Kevin Paradis’ Hornets will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of what turned out to be a state championship season with another appearance in the state final. They’ll face Western Maine winner Richmond (14-1-1) for the state crown next Saturday.

The game site has yet to be determined, but the Ashland boys will be joined there by the school’s top-seeded girls team, which beat No. 2 Bangor Christian 2-0 earlier Friday.

Carl Nemer was at the center of the back-and-forth first half. The Ashland junior appeared to have scored a goal about 51/2 minutes into the game when he drilled in a rebound that came off the hands of Machias goalie Justin Weaver, but Nemer was ruled to have been offsides.

Machias took advantage 1 minute, 27 seconds later when the Bulldogs got a goal from Joe Whitney off a long cross-field pass from Matthew Marshall.

The Bulldogs should have had the momentum, but two quick goals gave Ashland the lead for good.

The first came when Cote headed in a crossing pass from Nemer about two minutes after the Machias goal. The second was an unassisted shot by Kenny Tarr 26 seconds later.

“It was like, yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes, yes,” said Nemer, who scored two goals Friday which may have tied the school record of 27 for most goals in a season. “I don’t know, I think we just had a lot of determination.”

If the record is indeed tied, Nemer shares it with Darren Belskis, who set it in 1997.

Nemer slammed home a penalty kick after he was fouled in the area four minutes after Tarr’s goal and Nemer capped the scoring when he kicked in a shot from a near-impossible angle on the left post.

“I didn’t have much of an angle at all,” he said. “I just kicked it as hard as I could.”

Ashland dominated the first half, but Machias was stronger in the second, especially after Mike Little scored off a corner kick seven minutes in, to make it 4-2.

“We made a couple of youthful mistakes that gave them some opportunities early,” Machias coach Bob Sinford said. “We never recovered until the second half. We’ve come back a couple of times this year and one of the trademarks of our program is, never quit. They just didn’t quit.”

Little, who entered the game with 16 goals scored this season, was a primary concern for Ashland. He was marked by stopper Nick Gimbel.

“He’s a very good player and he had a lot of chances,” senior Gimbel said. “We got lucky on some of those. I think we did very good on defense. They had a lot of through-balls and we neutralized that. [Goalie Lucas Belanger] came up big and we held them.”

Cote scored on a blast from about 30 yards out with nine seconds left in the game.

Belanger finished with two saves on 11 shots, while Weaver made six saves on 19 shots.

Despite the loss, Sinford was pleased how the season turned out for the Bulldogs, who were 4-10 last year. Little missed most of 2006 with a knee injury.

“Without him all the young kids had to play and we ended up not being able to score a lot of goals,” Sinford said. “This year, having him back was a big boost.”