The mood was loose Thursday afternoon. The Pam Pack escaped the rain with an indoor practice at the Athletic Edge Sports & Fitness Center. Some ran up and down the small makeshift field while others showed off some moves in one-on-one basketball.

That’s all that head coach Jim Kozuch could hope for ahead of No. 2 Washington’s showdown with No. 1 Salisbury. The Pam Pack enter foreign territory on Saturday when it travels to N.C. State to compete for the 2-A state championship. They have never contended for a title in the program’s history.

“Whatever we do today, it’s not going to change what happens on Saturday,” Kozuch said during Thursday’s practice. “We’re just trying to keep everybody going and making sure no body gets hurt. But we definitely want to keep everybody moving.”

Washington departed for Raleigh Friday morning at about 11 a.m. Students, parents and members of the community gathered at the school to send the team off. Even more lined the sidewalks to show their support as the bus passed by.

Kozuch tried to keep nerves low on Friday, too. He took the team to see the Carolina Hurricanes take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at PNC Arena.

Kozuch was able to scout Salisbury before stepping onto the field. He talked to some coaches that had met the west’s top club, scoured newspapers and checked out some recruiting profiles.

“They’re going to be tough,” he said. “I think they’ve been to the state championship three of the last five years. They’ve won maybe three of them. They’ve got a guy with 60-plus goals. They’ve got a very sound team. Everybody says they’re coached very well. We can’t go out there and have an average game. We’ve been able to do that a couple of times this year. To win the state championship, we’re going to have to go and play our best game of the year.”

The Pam Pack and Hornets are similar in that neither have an offense that runs through one player. It’s impossible to be successful man marking one player. There are too many threats on the attack. That common ground helps Washington prepare.

“The matchups it would take for another team to beat us, that’s what we’re going to have to do to beat them,” Kozuch said. “They’ve got an extremely dominant midfield and a guy up top that can finish just about every time. I feel like they’ve got a very similar makeup as we do.”

It does ring a bell. Washington has a prolific scorer in Freddy Jimenez, but also have plenty of other scoring options. Rob Zerniak has five goals in his last three outings. Kyle Hodges has proven his ability to both create chances and finish, too. Holt McKeithan has found the back of the net more than a few times on set pieces.

McKeithan and William Tate will need to spearhead a stout defensive effort. This Salisbury squad will be the most offensively potent team they’ve faced since they clashed with First Flight months ago.

No matter the outcome, Washington has made history this season. This game will be the last one for the team’s 11 seniors. They will experience the culmination of years of work that has been put into building this program.

“Soccer season is just three or four months on paper,” Kozuch said. “But there’s so much more to it. We don’t stop.”