C Conference
With the win, McDonogh (21-0) took back the championship it had held for nine straight years prior to last season, when Notre Dame Prep ended the Eagles’ nationalrecord 198-game winning streak in the finals.
They were determined to avoid a similar scenario.
“For the girls to come full circle… this has been the goal in the back of their minds all year,” Cummings said. ”We only really started talking about winning the championship after our win on Wednesday [in the semifinals]. They’ve had great grit and determination throughout the season.”
After coming back late in games several times during the season, McDonogh faced perhaps its biggest test to date, coming up empty on shot after shot and scoring just two goals in the first 45:46.
“Their goalie was incredible — I think she could’ve stood on top of her head and she would’ve saved it,” Cummings said. “Our message once we found out we were playing St. Paul’s was to try to move her as best as we can. We scored the amount we needed to score, but I think we were like 5-for-25 [shooting].”
Goals: SP-Pirisino 2, Sawers, Pearce; M-Abernathy 2, Schettig, Pearre, Marsh. Assists: SP-Sawers; M-Pearre, Dorsey. Saves: SP-Warheim 11; M-Hammerschlag 1; Geoghan 3. Half: McDonogh, 2-1.
Pallotti 8, Concordia 7, OT: Senior Quai Skeete Ridley bounced a free-position shot into the net 11 seconds into overtime, the last of her game-high six goals, as St. Vincent Pallotti rallied from a four-goal deficit to top
Mercy 9, AACS 3: In the span of six days, the Mercy lacrosse team’s three-win regular season in the conference became a distant memory.
After closing with 10 losses in their final 12 games, the Magic won three straight playoff games, capped by Saturday’s victory over Annapolis Area Christian School in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference final. Mercy, the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, won its third straight conference title and fourth since 2011.
“Everything came together in the playoffs,” Mercy coach Brian Casserly said. “Everything was close during the season. We had a bunch of one-goal losses.
“We talk every season at the beginning of the year about there’s really only three games that matter.”
Mercy’s victory Saturday came against an AACS team it fell to twice in the regular season, once by two goals and the other time by one. The Magic lost nine games by a one or two goals, including three in overtime. They won their three playoff games by a combined 37-23.