Campbell's Logan Barka (right) goes to congratulate Luke Delia after he scored the game winning goal late in regulation of Campbell's 2-1 Division II semifinal win over Lebanon. (Photo by Dan Doyon)

EXETER – Dan Dufourny stepped into his first year as coach for the reigning Division III champion Campbell High School boys soccer team did not know what to expect with the Cougars making the jump to Division II this season.

His team blew away his expectations and will now contend for a second-straight title.

Senior Luke Delia’s second goal with around three minutes left in regulation broke a tie to send top-seeded Campbell to the Division II championship game with a 2-1 victory over No. 5 Lebanon in Tuesday night’s semifinals at Exeter High School’s William Ball Stadium.

“I thought it was going to be a big jump up, I thought maybe we would be mid-table,” Dufourny said. “We had a couple of big wins early that raised expectations and they’ve been really focused since the playoffs have started.”

Campbell (16-1-1) aims for its fourth overall title in the past seven seasons when it returns to Exeter for Friday night’s title game against No. 3 Milford. The Spartans advanced with a 2-1 win over No. 2 Oyster River (15-3) in Tuesday’s earlier action.

While his coach was a bit unsure how this season would play out, Delia felt his team was ready for the challenge from the beginning. Campbell brings an 11-game winning streak into Friday, which included a 3-2 quarterfinal victory over No. 9 Bow.

“I feel like we lost a lot of talent last year but we gained more talent this year,” Delia said. “We all had confidence in ourselves and in the first few games of the season we showed it.”

Lebanon (10-5-4) grabbed a 1-0 lead with 26:36 left in the first half when it was awarded a penalty kick that Otto Bourne buried past Campbell goalie Jack Bourque.

he Raiders carried that lead into halftime before Delia evened the game at 1-1 seven minutes into the second half with a header off a through ball from Logan Barka and beat Lebanon goalie Bode Price.

“I know (Barka) can kick the ball extremely far, so I start onsides and basically follow the ball in and try to get a head on it,” Delia said. “I managed to work it out and it went in.”

Dufourny said that moving Delia from striker to midfield in the second was the major difference and it paid off again when he finished off a two-pass execution with another header for the game-winning goal.

“I moved Luke back to mid, I think that settled things down and I think they had trouble finding him in the first half,” Dufourny said. “We were just kicking it on the ground more. In the second half we were keeping it down low and playing more simple.”

Lebanon coach Rob Johnstone was thrilled with how his team played but the lethal quick-strike ability by Campbell was too much to overcome.

“I think it was a worthy semifinal and 10 out of 10 times it’s going to be a game like this,” Johnstone said. “We’re two athletic teams who play entertaining soccer and it just came down to the end.”

Now Campbell will face the only team that beat them this season in Milford. The Spartans walked away with a 2-1 win early in the season in Litchfield before Campbell returned the favor on the road with a 4-1 win on Oct. 15.

“I’m extremely excited,” Delia said. “I think they’re going to come out strong, we’re going to come out strong and anybody can win. But I think we got it though.”