Eagles use blitz to soar past Cavs

Battle of powers turns on 7-goal surge

The Archbishop Spalding girls lacrosse team rebounded from a sub.-500 season in 2021 to take the lacrosse world by storm this spring, upending nationally ranked Notre Dame Prep and Glenelg Country in the first week of the season.

Perennial-power McDonogh proved Friday it was paying attention.

In a key early-season matchup in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference, the host No. 2 Eagles broke open a tight game by winning draws, executing on offense and scoring seven straight goals to start the second half. That enabled them to pull away for a 16-8 win over the No. 6 Cavaliers.

“[Spalding] beating a very good GCS team was something we saw and said, ‘All right, we really need to prepare for them,’ ” McDonogh midfielder Kori Edmondson said.

“We spent this week … really gearing up for them. They weren’t easy practices — we really studied hard, and it showed in the way we played.”

Edmondson, a two-way midfielder headed for the University of Maryland, scored five goals, making plays all over the field during a 12-minute stretch early in the second half that turned a 6-4 lead into a 13-4 advantage.

Midfielder Ana Lee Vandiver (Elon) also scored three goals for the Eagles, who looked as sharp as they have at any point during the past two seasons in improving to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference.

“I’m really proud of our effort coming out of halftime,” McDonogh coach Taylor Cummings said. “It was a tight game against a very talented Spalding team. I think we just took advantage of our offensive opportunities.

“We moved the ball, moved our bodies in the 12 and got some really good goals.”

Spalding (5-1 overall and in the conference), which got three goals from sophomore midfielder Gabby Greene and an inspired all-around effort from senior midfielder Bella Saviano (Yale), hung with the Eagles early, storming back from a 2-0 deficit to pull even on back-to-back goals by Reese Dowgiallo (High Point) and Saviano.

But the Cavaliers never took the lead, with McDonogh pulling ahead for good on Edmondson’s solo effort with 12 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first half.

“I think something in our brains just finally clicked,” Edmondson said. “We all trusted each other, and that’s when everything is going to just start to roll.”

The result was a disappointment for Spalding, which opened the season with an 11-10 win over then-national No. 7 Notre Dame Prep and followed a week later with a 12-9 win over then-No. 10 Glenelg Country. The Cavaliers, who hadn’t been considered a serious conference contender before the start of the season, entered the game ranked No. 5 in the latest Nike/USA Lacrosse National Girls Top 25, just spots below McDonogh.

“I tell the girls all the time, ‘One game isn’t going to define us,’ ” Spalding coach Tara Shea said. “This is going to be a steppingstone, and it’s better now than at the end.

“I have no doubt these girls will rebound. They believe they can beat anyone in this league when we put a good game together.

“If we kind of correct some of our unforced errors and make a few more adjustments … I think that game is closer.”

For McDonogh, there are no easy games in a conference that’s improved from top to bottom this season, with as many as eight teams capable of knocking each other off on any given day.

And that’s just the way Cummings likes it.

“It’s our goal to be battletested going into playoffs,” Cummings said. “We get to play in one of the best leagues in the country, where every game is a battle and you can’t take a day off.”