Severna Park rolls to region field hockey title
Falcons advance to 33rd appearance in state tourney; F.S. Key wins 1A West crown
Alex Miller scored late in the first half and Emme Sayers, Lila Slattery and Bella Blumenberg scored in a 20-minute span in the second half as No. 2 Severna Park defeated No. 14 South River, 4-1, to win the Class 4A East Region field hockey title at Kinder Park on Wednesday.
The Falcons (15-1) will make their 33rd appearance in the state tournament when they play Class 4A South Region winner Bethesda-Chevy Chase, a 4-2 victor over Churchill, at Broadneck on Monday. Severna Park going for its eighth state title in 11 years and state-record 24th overall. South River (10-7), which defeated the Falcons in last year’s region final en route to its fifth state title, had won four straight games.
“It feels amazing to be on the other side. South River is always a great team, it is always great competition and this is a great rivalry,” Miller said.
NO. 4 DULANEY 4, OLD MILL 0: Reece Spann scored twice and had an assist to lead the host Lions (17-1) over the Patriots (8-6) in Class 4A North.
Spann scored the first goal after a penalty corner by Grace Jung.
“We practice corners a lot,” Spann said. “We have a routine we go through with corners and I’ve had a lot of reps just doing that, just touching the ball in and getting a shot as fast as possible.” NO. 10 GLENLEG 2, NO. 7 RIVER HILL 0: Severna Park’s Lila Slattery (17) celebrates her second-half goal with teammate Emme Sayers after beating South River goalie Kaitlyn Wallace and defender Madeline Cloyd. Emily Bacon and Georgia Esmond each scored to lead the Gladiators (8-4) past the host Hawks (11-4-1) in Class 2A East.
“They beat us to too many balls, so we didn’t gain control of the game like wehave been in other games because they cut off a lot of our passes,” River Hill coach Shelly Chamness said.
URBANA 2, NO. 9 WESTMINSTER 1, 2OT: Freshman midfielder Maggie Goodwin scored the game-winner with less than three minutes left in the second overtime to lift the host Hawks (16-0-1) over the Owls (13-4) in Class 3A West.
Goodwin finished with two goals.
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 7, WALKERSVILLE 0: Junior attacker Makayla Black scored three goals, two in the first half, to help the visiting Eagles (11-5) beat the Lions (5-9) in Class 1A West.
Francis Scott Key reached the regional final in 2015 and 2016, and both times the Eagles lost — two years ago in penalty strokes against Manchester Valley, last season in overtime versus Liberty.
“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of happiness,” said Hannah Wolf, one of the Eagles’ captains and a senior defender.