The Cumberland Valley Christian Blazers are in the Mason Dixon Christian Conference soccer championship for the fourth straight season.

The Blazers defeated Grace Academy 4-1 on Thursday in the MDCC semifinals to advance to Saturday’s title game against Calvary Christian, which defeated Shalom Christian 1-0 in double overtime on Thursday. The Blazers (19-1) and Calvary have met in each of the last three championship games, with Calvary winning twice, including last year by a 3-2 score.

The final score did not indicate the tightness of Thursday’s game, which was scoreless until the final 10 minutes of the first half.

The Blazers broke the scoreless tie when Wyatt Pine scored on an assist by Aaron Minnier. They went ahead just a few minutes later when Josh Rowe rifled a shot that skidded under the goalkeeper’s hands to make it 2-0 at halftime.

The Blazers went up 3-0 in the second half on the first of Mario Wiesman’s two goals. But Grace responded with a goal to make it 3-1 and then had several opportunities to make it a one-goal game. Blazer goalkeeper Gabe Beckering came up with several key saves, and defender Felix Kauffeldt cleared a ball near the goal line to keep the two-goal advantage.

“Gabe had a big night,” Blazers coach Stan  Hott said. “He

Mario Wiesman slips a shot past Grace’s goalkeeper in the Blazers’ 4-1 MDCC playoff semifinal victory Thursday.

made several big saves against one-on-one Grace players. He really stepped up his game. Mario and Wyatt pulled the defense apart and were able to get the goals that we needed to move forward in the postseason tourney.”

Wiesman scored his second goal late in the game to pretty much silence the Grace comeback effort.

Beckering made 23 saves for the Blazers. Landon Kellogg, Max Crawford and Sam Hepler also delivered assists.

Saturday’s championship game will be at 1 p.m. at Greencastle-Antrim High School. Shalom and Grace will meet in the consolation game at 11 a.m. The top-seeded Blazers and second-seeded Calvary split their games during the regular season, with the Blazers winning 5-4 at home and losing 3-1 at Calvary.