Cavs put up fight, but Eagles prevail

McDonogh extends record win streak to 191 straight

For Archbishop Spalding girls lacrosse goalie Paige Gunning, playing against No. 1 McDonogh and the momentum of the Eagles’ 191-game winning streak is “incredibly nerve wracking.”

The Cavaliers face McDonogh regularly in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference, so they know what’s coming.

Like many of the other A Conference teams, the No. 9 Cavaliers are also a good team. They just can’t get past the Eagles, who haven’t lost in nine years and haven’t lost to an A Conference foe in almost 10 years.

On Friday, the Cavaliers played McDonogh nearly even in the first half and were within a goal at halftime before the visitors scored five of the first six goals of the second half to claim a 10-6 victory.

Gunning, a junior who made 10 saves, said the streak gives the Eagles (14-0, 8-0 IAAM) an extra edge.

“They have an unbelievable amount of confidence coming in, which they should,” Gunning said. “Their entire team is incredibly well disciplined. You’ll see that they’re amazing on both sides of the field and they play at the highest level. They make very few errors, which is hard to do especially in this sport.”

This season, the Eagles have played more close games than in recent years, but they’ve managed to be the only consistent team in the A Conference. The four-goal margin against the Cavaliers matched McDonogh’s closest this season.

While the Eagles don’t focus on the streak, senior attacker Julia Hoffman, who scored three times, said the tradition of winning certainly helps in the close games.

“We know from the past that if we play the way we know we can play, we can always come out on top,” Hoffman said. “It makes us really reach in deeper and every game this year has been a little bit harder, but I think that’s a good challenge for us, because once we win those games, it shows us what we’re capable of. It’s just a good reality check to know that everybody’s giving us their best shot.”

Spalding (7-4, 4-4) kept pace early even though McDonogh center Maddie Jenner won the first five draws.

After back-to-back goals by Jenner gave the Eagles a 3-1 lead midway through the first half, the Cavaliers answered with goals from Maggie Jordan and Jenna Garden to tie.

McDonogh came back with two goals as Hoffman fed Emma Schettig and then scored in transition on a feed from Kayla Abernathy for a 5-3 lead with 4:25 left in the half.

The Cavaliers pulled within one twice, lastly on Kristin O’Neill’s free-position goal to cut it to 6-5 with 20:23 left, but the Eagles defense clamped down and held Spalding scoreless for more than 18 minutes.