CHANTILLY -- Given the choice between a bunch of characters and a bunch with character, Deep Run boys soccer coach Steven Chapman will take the latter every time. That is why the Wildcats are savoring the first state Group AAA championship in the program's six-year history.

Chapman said Deep Run's 1-0 victory over Robinson in yesterday's taut state championship game at Westfield High School was as much a function of long-term commitment as short-term brilliance. The Wildcats' starting lineup included eight seniors, and Chapman's respect for -- and devotion to -- those players was readily apparent in the game's giddy aftermath.

From the moment Deep Run opened in 2002, Chapman said, his intent was twofold: to build a program that could challenge for state supremacy and to build that program on a foundation that could endure from one season to the next.

"We wanted passion, honor, excellence and tradition," Chapman said. "These [seniors] are the first group that has really bought into what we're trying to do. They've busted their tails for four years. No one who came before them has done it the way these kids have done it."

And yesterday, in the biggest game of their young lives, it showed. Two of Chapman's seniors, midfielder Bryan Wharton and forward Brian Ownby, manufactured the game's only goal. Ownby's crossing pass following a lovely run down the right sideline left Wharton with the ball at his feet and the entire net at which to shoot.

Other seniors -- goalkeeper Cameron Murray and backs Zach Summers and Hunter Curle among them -- anchored a defense that did not permit a shot until the game was 35 minutes old and ultimately posted Deep Run's 17th shutout in a 22-2-1 season.

Chapman, whose club allowed only one goal in three state Group AAA victories, called yesterday's success "quite overwhelming."

Wharton agreed. "A lot of people have been expecting us to do this for a while now -- probably for the past two-three years," he said. "Who knows why we haven't. Maybe we choked. Maybe we didn't come in with the right attitude. All I know is, it feels so nice to finally get one and to get it on our last chance."

Northern Region runner-up Robinson, thoroughly dominated during the first half, brought more players forward after the break and soon made the Wildcats squirm. Summers swept a shot out of the goalkeeper's box in the 52nd minute with a yawning net behind him. Murray climbed high in the 57th minute to tip Andrew Teran's 30-yard rocket over the crossbar.

"I wasn't sure that one goal was going to be enough," Chapman said. "The kids in the back were very tenacious. They fought very hard to hold on."

No argument there. Deep Run's defense withstood not only Robinson's pressure but also stifling heat and humidity. In a game in which a single lapse of focus might have beckoned the Rams back into the game, the Wildcats experienced none.

Said Curle: "I wasn't sure, to be honest, that this was ever going to happen. But now that it has -- what can I say? It feels really, really good."

Deep Run ------------------------- 1
Robinson ------------------------- 0

0 -- 1

0 -- 0

DR: Wharton

Saves: Murray (DR) 3; Dominguez (R) 4

Records: Deep Run 22-2-1; Robinson 12-5-3