It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Just ask the soccer teams from Triad and Edwardsville high schools.

Despite slow starts to the season, both teams have a chance to contend for a state title this weekend in the IHSA championships at North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

Making its first state appearance, Triad (15-9-2) will take on St. Viator (22-4-1) in the Class 2A semifinals at 1 p.m. today. Defending champ Peoria Notre Dame (22-2-1) takes on Freeport (22-2-4) in the 11 a.m. semifinal.

On Saturday, the Class 2A title game will be at 1 p.m., with the third-place match at 11 a.m.

In Class 3A tonight at 7, 2008 runner-up Edwardsville (18-3-4) plays Lake Zurich (20-4), and defending champion New Trier (18-6-3) faces Lyons (24-3) at 5 p.m.

Today's winners meet for the championship Saturday at 7 p.m.; the third-place match will be at 5 p.m.

"Getting back to state was the goal, but to do it in back-to-back years, especially with just four teams advancing, is a real challenge,'' Edwardsville coach Mark Heiderscheid said. "Considering the 'name' players we graduated, this is quite a testament to our team and especially to our seniors.''

The Tigers, who fell 2-1 to New Trier in last year's title match, started this season 3-3-3. But Heiderscheid was not overly concerned.

"We weren't playing all that poorly; we just weren't getting results,'' he said. "We made a few minor adjustments and eventually started to put things together.''

And how. The Tigers have not lost a game since Sept. 18 and enter the weekend riding a 15-0-1 streak.

"We're playing as a team,'' said senior Cameron Lauchner, who leads the Tigers with 17 goals and 16 assists. "We know that if we work hard and everybody does his job, we have a chance to compete with anybody.''

The Tigers will have to get by without standout junior Sam Fink and his 14 goals. He must sit out the semifinal match after being red-carded for excessive celebration after scoring in Tuesday's 4-1 supersectional victory.

"It's kind of unfortunate that a player has to sit out for celebrating a goal,'' Heiderscheid said. "I'll just leave it at that.''

The trip to state is the seventh for Edwardsville, which won the AA title in 2000 and finished second in 1997, 2001 and 2008.

Like Edwardsville, Triad stumbled a bit early, going 1-5-1 to open the season. But the Knights have also come on strong, winning 10 of their last 11 matches.

"We just have a bunch of guys who play hard and who never give up,'' Triad coach Mike Villa said after his club rallied from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to beat Champaign Centennial 3-2 in overtime to earn the state trip.

Senior keeper Jake Teveer has nine shutouts for the Knights.