Until Thursday night, it had been 10 years since the Boyd-Buchanan boys’ soccer team won a region championship.

The Buccaneers believe it won’t be 10 more before they win another.

With just four seniors and a strong group of sophomore starters, Boyd-Buchanan will play for a spot in the Class A/AA state tournament Sunday, when the Bucs face Merrol Hyde in a state sectional match.

First-year coach Jason Owens said the win over Arts & Sciences in the Region 3 final that gave Boyd-Buchanan the right to host Sunday’s game was a big step forward for his program.

“It’s huge,” he said. “What’s great is that Boyd-Buchanan is really developing soccer, all the way down to the first grade. And with these sophomores we’ve got, it’s just going to continue to grow. We’ve got another two years with seven starters, and we’ve got some really good guys coming up in our middle school right now, so it’s exciting to see soccer at Boyd-Buchanan right now. And our fans love it.”

A large crowd was on hand for Thursday’s region final, the first for the Bucs since 2002. The region championship is their first since 1998, when the team went on to finish as state runner-up.

Boyd-Buchanan will play this year’s sectional match Sunday at 2:30 p.m. to accommodate Merrol Hyde’s graduation, and Bucs senior Alex Kuhne expects the stands to be packed.

“It’s probably going to be the biggest crowd we’ve ever seen here,” Kuhne said. “Last year we started getting more and more, but this year’s it’s just been fantastic how many people have been coming out to see us.”

The Cleveland and Baylor soccer teams will play at home today for state-tournament berths, while the Arts & Sciences and McMinn County teams will be on the road.

Region 4-AAA runner-up Murfreesboro Blackman will visit the Cleveland Soccer Complex for a 5:30 game. The Blue Raiders won the Region 3-AAA championship for the first time since 2001 and will be playing for their first trip to state.

“It’s big for our program,” second-year Cleveland coach John Brose said. “We’ve had some good teams in the past, and we’ve had a lot of great players come through here. We just want to keep on building. These guys are setting the mark high for future generations of Cleveland soccer.”