Driggs nets 3 as St. Mary’s overwhelms Gerstell

St. Mary’s, frankly, grew tired of playing catch-up on its own ground.

The Saints bucked a back-andforth first half by scoring five unanswered goals after halftime and staving off a budding rally to dispatch Gerstell Academy, 9-6, in

Annapolis on Monday.

“We maybe underestimated them a little. We were flat to start,” St. Mary’s coach Mindy Jones said. “Once we realized they were here to play — [Gerstell’s Emily Messinese] is a great player — we were playing with a lot of adrenaline.”

The close nature of the first half may have flustered the Saints, who were not used to those circumstances, Jones said.

“We had to get it all out and play with patience,” the coach said.

Junior Gracie Driggs added another feather to her already very crowded cap with a hat trick, netting two of her three goals in the second half as part of St. Mary’s’ 4-0 run, one supercharged by thanks to sophomores Meghan O’Hare and Camryn Pfundstein repeatedly winning draws.

The Saints (2-1) outnumbered the Falcons on draw controls, 12-4.

“In that second half, that was crucial that we came up with those,” Jones said.

From the start, no one could stop Messinese as the Navy commit broke the ice in the Falcons’ favor. Just seconds later, Saints Pfundstein turned in her reply, knotting the score at 1-1.

Seemingly endless minutes counted down, marked by fruitless penalty shots and defensive stops on both ends, before anyone would

get on the board again.

But Messinese had done it once already. The Falcons senior earned her penalty shot and crouched low, facing the young goalkeeper in front of her. She took a few swift steps and netted her second goal.

Gerstell nursed that one-goal lead through two minutes, but when a Falcons stick dropped the ball, St. Mary’s Driggs knew what to do. She channeled what her offense started as she faced Gerstell keeper Brynn Knight head-on and fired the tying goal for the Saints.

Nothing the Falcons did seemed to rattle the Saints. When Maryland commit Kennedy Major boosted Gerstell by one with her penalty goal, Saints sophomore Kyra Obert answered within a minute.

Messinese tried single-handedly shake her hosts just before the half, notching a hat trick off another penalty, until St. Mary’s O’Hare neutralized her efforts with her own goal just before halftime, locking the two teams at 4-4.

“We looked it as a fresh game,” Driggs said. “We just came off a loss to Maryvale and we wanted to get pumped up for Spalding coming in [on Wednesday]. We were supporting each other more and our energy was so much better.”

Winning both draws to open the second half immediately turned into St. Mary’s goals. Within three minutes, the Saints not only captured their first lead, but built the largest advantage of the afternoon, 6-4.

The tide of victory churned with Driggs as the Saints junior successfully breached Gerstell’s cage, not once, but twice.

The Georgetown commit leapt to her feet, screaming with delight as her teammates swarmed her, relishing their sudden, significant 8-4 lead.

“We focused on five minutes at a time: win this five, move on to the next,” Driggs said. “That was obviously the momentum we needed.”

Gerstell, on the other hand, couldn’t break through St. Mary’s’ defenses. Gerstell coach Joshua Gochnauer said his Falcons missed a few slides, a product of a young team. Even if a ball-handler gave a Saints player the slip long enough, the Falcons’ shot withered in St. Mary’s goalkeeper Madigan Brewer’s stick (three saves).

Jones told her team afterward, “Madigan came up huge. That’s a young goalie who hasn’t had much experience in varsity games. Coming up big, it’s the momentum that shifts it for our girls.”

Elissa Blandford wheeled through the Gerstell defense and struck to add another goal. Abby Morrison (Mercer) and Messinese each replied with a penalty goal for the Falcons, but they came too late to rally.

Gouchnauer felt his Falcons held their own against a team he considers one of the best the IAAM has to offer.

“We made a nice little comeback towards the end,” he said, “but super proud of my girls.” GOALS: SM — Gracie Driggs (3), Camryn Pfundstein (2), Kyra Obert (1), Meghan O’Hare (1), Alex Parker (1), Elissa Blandford (1); G — Emily Messinese (4), Kennedy Major (1), Abby Morrison (1)