SCARBOROUGH — With his team down a point late in the fourth set of a Class A volleyball semifinal against No. 1 Scarborough, Thornton Academy coach Corey Huot called a timeout. Not to fire up his team, but to remind the Golden Trojans they have been here before.

“He just told us, ‘Hey, we’re here for a reason. We can fight back. Five points, 10 points, we’ve come back from it all,'” said Thornton junior Brooklyn Desrochers. “We had a one-point mentality the rest of the game.”

From there the Trojans closed the set by taking seven of the final 10 points, and with it the 3-1 win to advance to the Class A state championship game.

No. 4 Thornton (12-4) will face No. 3 Gorham (13-3), the defending state champion, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the University of Southern Maine. Scarborough ends the season at 14-2.

“This team, I feel like every single girl is my best friend. I came into this wanting to do it for my best friends. I wanted to get them to the state championship,” Desrochers said.

Thornton took the first set, 25-20. The Red Storm answered with a win in set two, 25-21, but the Trojans jumped out to a big lead in set three to take it, 25-10. The fourth set went back and forth until Thornton took control out of that pivotal timeout, when Scarborough held a 19-18 lead.

Scarborough beat Thornton twice in the regular season, each time a tight 3-2 match. In preparing for Wednesday’s showdown, the Trojans focused on fundamentals, particularly spotting. The benefit of playing a team three times, Huot said, is learning what its strengths are and focusing on countering them.

“Sometimes you just get into the habit of ripping it and not really paying attention to where we’re putting it. We just saw some spots we thought we could really take advantage of,” Huot said. “Brooklyn was a huge part of that. She’s so good at scouting film. She puts so much energy and effort into every game.”

Scarborough coach Nicole Petherbridge thought her team might have felt the nerves of a playoff game. She was happy with the way the players showed fight, particularly in the third set. Down 21-3, the Red Storm fought to make it closer before falling 25-10.

“We talked about those two earlier games being tight games. We couldn’t come in here expecting a blowout, no matter how it went,” Petherbridge said. “I’m really proud of this team and how hard they worked.”

In Gorham, Thornton Academy faces an opponent it played twice in the regular season. Each took a 3-0 victory on the other team’s home court.

“They’re back-to-back state champs for a reason. We’ve got another tall task in front of us,” Huot said.