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FALMOUTH — For the past three years, the Class A semifinal round has been a brick wall for the Thornton Academy boys lacrosse team. Wednesday afternoon at Falmouth High, the Trojans finally ran through it.

No. 2 Thornton took control of the game in the second quarter, pulling away for a 15-9 win over No. 3 South Portland to advance to the state championship game for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.

“Freshman, sophomore, junior year, we fell short to Cape in this same game. It’s nice to finally get one,” said Thornton senior Jack DeLeo, who scored six goals to pace the Trojans.

Thornton will face top-ranked Falmouth on Saturday at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.

South Portland ends the season at 11-5.

This game was tied 4-4 after one quarter, but Thornton was already grabbing the momentum after Tadhg O’Donnell’s goal with 2:08 left in the first quarter gave the Red Riots a 4-2 lead.

South Portland coach Dan Hanley said the fast start, which began when Beckett Mehlhorn scored just 1:28 into the contest, was the result of fundamentals in the faceoff circle.

“We won a few early faceoffs, which was great for our momentum. We struggled in the X this year. That really got our guys going, Beckett sticking the first goal after a really long road of recovery. Back three weeks ago, he had a serious hamstring injury,” Hanley said.

Goals by DeLeo and Casey Fournier pulled the Trojans even by the end of the quarter, and a DeLeo goal 54 seconds into the second quarter put Thornton ahead for good. A DeLeo goal with 7:05 left in the half capped a 5-0 run that gave Thornton a 7-4 lead.

“Second quarter, we started moving it a little more. We got our second look and we started burying them. We started hitting the back of the net,” DeLeo said.

Thornton led 9-5 at the half, and when the Red Riots defense started to do a better job picking up DeLeo, other Trojans contributed. Will Edborg scored three of his five goals in the second half, and Ben Knox and Ben White each contributed a goal.

“We just said, we’ve got to run the specific plays we were looking to do. Jack DeLeo had a field day today. We were looking to get him open. When they start overloading him, then we can use those secondary guys,” Thornton coach Ryan Hersey said.

With the lead, Thornton was content to slow things down in the second half and run the clock. The Trojans’ ability to get to ground balls and control play was a major factor, Hanley said.

“I felt like our offense got some really good looks. We just didn’t get enough possessions,” he said.

Mehlhorn finished three goals, while O’Donnell led the Red Riots with four goals.