With big early lead, St. Paul’s dominates rival McDonogh
To say St. Paul’s junior Anna Regan had some big shoes to fill this season would be an understatement. The midfielder stepped in to succeed Christina Gagnon, last year’s Nike/USA Lacrosse National Player of the Year, as the draw specialist for the nation’s consensus No. 1 girls lacrosse team.
In Monday’s highly anticipated game against No. 2 McDonogh, Regan proved she was more than up for the task, dominating draws early to help the top-ranked Gators score the game’s first seven goals in a 17-8 win against the national No. 3 Eagles in a rematch of last year’s Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference final.
Time and again, Regan either scooped up draws on her own or fed them to teammates Natalie Shurtleff and Kendall Steer. The combination won seven of the game’s first nine draws, helping host St. Paul’s build a 7-0 lead after the first 8:36.
“The draw was huge. Our draw team started us off on the right foot,” Gators coach Mary Gagnon said. “We played all different aspects of the game well in the very beginning, then we had to weather their run. We knew it was coming. We just had to step up and finish, and we did.”
Steer and Shurtleff scored four goals each as St. Paul’s (10-0 overall, 8-0 IAAM A) won its third straight game against McDonogh by a combined 50-25, including last year’s 17-8 win in the A Conference final. This one was one-sided from the outset, with the Gators taking 11 of the first 12 shots and limiting the Eagles to one goal in the first 20:36.
“I think we all went into it really confident … definitely not cocky, because McDonogh is a really good team, but we were all really
confident and we believed in each other,” Regan said. “What worked for me was just having trust in my circle of girls. I think they did awesome.”
Though McDonogh (9-1, 6-1), which got three goals from Maryland-bound midfielder Kori Edmondson, roared back to life with a 6-2 mid-game run, the deficit was simply too large.
“You have the ball, you have the opportunity to score,” McDonogh coach Taylor Cummings said. “St. Paul’s came out playing really solidly on the offensive end and made the most of their possessions. I’m proud of the way we fought back sort of in the middle chunk of that game, but then we kind of lost steam. It’s hard to really claw back against a good team. Something that we’re going to have to adjust is the way we come out.”
Sophomore Remi Schaller’s free-position goal put the Eagles within five with 18:13 left, but they would get no closer.
“We knew they were going to have a run back,” Gagnon said. “Every time they came, we either made a good save or answered [with a goal].”
Cummings said the poor start will be a teaching moment for a team that is among the favorites to make it back to next month’s conference championship game.
“This is literally the middle game of our season, so we have plenty of time to make adjustments, plenty of time to improve,” Cummings said. “Our goal is to peak in May, and losses can teach you a lot. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board, we’re going to take a look at things. We have a lot of opportunity to improve, and that’s what we’re excited about.