Liberty girls lacrosse grabs 1st state title
Liberty High School established itself as a championship-caliber girls lacrosse program not long after the sport came to Carroll County in 1988.
The Lions won 12 county titles in a 13-year stretch, and made six state tournament trips in the 1990s. Four of those ended in championship games, but Liberty came up short each time.
The final three minutes of Friday’s Class 1A state final couldn’t go fast enough for this year’s Lions, who were trying to hang on and beat Fallston at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex in their first title game appearance in 21 years. And hang on they did.
The Cougars trimmed the deficit to one goal, but sophomore Jenna Evans came up with a big draw control in the final minutes to help secure a 10-9 victory and Liberty’s first state championship.
The Lions (9-4) maintained their lead and ran out the clock before celebrating on the field and in front of their joyous fans.
“I just knew we had to win the ball and hold it on our end,” said Evans, who came on for most of the second-half draws after her team struggled to win them in the first 25 minutes. “We couldn’t let them have the ball. It was really important just to get the draw and go down toward the goal and pass it around.”
— Pat Stoetzer
Boys lacrosse
Fallston 13, Smithsburg 8: The lead was down to one in the third quarter of Friday’s Class 1A state title game, and the Fallston boys lacrosse team knew the minutes that followed would define its season.
The Cougars responded the way they had all year — with a confident, collective effort. First came a pivotal save from senior goalie Jack Emmett. Then a goal from freshman Chris King. Sophomore faceoff specialist Aiden Dixon, dominant throughout the playoffs, did his part with yet another faceoff win, and more goals came.
Fallston scored five of the next six goals to fend off scrappy Smithsburg, claiming a 13-8 win at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex.
In capturing the program’s sixth state crown and first since 2016, the Cougars closed the season with eight straight wins to finish with a 10-1 mark.
First-year coach Pat Mull was impressed — but not surprised — with what he saw from his Cougars after Smithsburg cut the lead to 7-6 with 8:16 left in the third quarter.
“We’ve been battling adversity all year with different COVID things, injuries and it’s been a ‘next-man up’ mentality,” he said. “So we’ve been through a lot and I think that had us ready for that situation and we responded really well. It kind of gave us that cushion to make everybody say, ‘We’re OK, we got this.’ So I’m really proud with how they responded.”
Urbana 7, Towson 6: Senior defenseman Joe Murray secured a takeaway in the defensive end with 11 seconds left and moved the ball forward for junior Will Derbyshire to get off one final shot just before the clock expired.
While the hurried shot sprayed a bit wide, the effort spoke admirably to the Generals’ character in a loss to the Hawks in the Class 3A final at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex.
“We played our hearts out and that’s everything I can ask from everybody,” said Towson senior captain Evan Jones, who led the Generals with three goals and two assists. “Everyone gave 100% effort, every day, every practice, every game — that’s all we can ask for.
“Once they were up one, I knew we weren’t going to quit, we’d stay with it. This team is strong. If we’re down a goal, we’re not going to give up, and we kept going until the end and played our hearts out.”
The Hawks came into the game with an 11-0 record, averaging 17 goals per game and boasting five seniors that are set to play Division I lacrosse next year.
Softball
Chesapeake-AA 3, Reservoir 1: Two years ago, Jerzie Nutile made Chesapeake coach Don Ellenberger a pinky promise.
They were walking off University of Maryland’s softball field in defeat, having just lost the 2019 Class 3A state championship game.
Nutile, then a sophomore, made her coach a promise: she would win it for him before it was all said and done.
And you can’t break a pinky promise.
For the first time since 2008, the Cougars ascended to the top as they defeated Reservoir, 3-1, Friday to win the 3A state title at Bachman Sports Complex in Glen Burnie.
Norah Hart tripled and scored on Kaitlyn Young’s RBI single in the top of the second — the first run the Gators had allowed so far this postseason — and sophomore Sam Larkin hit a two-run home run in the fifth which proved enough for Chesapeake (16-1) offensively against Reservoir senior pitcher Kylee Gunkel.
— Katherine Fominykh
Patterson Mill 4, Allegany 1: The Huskies (22-0) won their first state softball championship Friday and in the process, completed a perfect season.
Patterson Mill beat Allegany (13-1) in the Class 1A title at Bachman Sports Complex in Glen Burnie.
Junior Madison Knight pitched the win, striking out 14. She allowed eight hits, but just the one run. Knight walked one and the Huskies committed one error.
Knight, a Syracuse commit, out-dueled
Allegany senior Kyra Pittman, a Maryland commit.
“This feels awesome to me right now, this team has worked so hard all season,” Knight said.” Working through COVID and everything, it just shows so much that this team, like the work ethic, passion, everything. I’m just super, super happy and super, super excited to say I’m a state champion right now.”
Track and field
The first day of the state track and field championships proved to be a day of firsts for the Dunbar boys and Western Tech girls.
Neither school had ever won a team state title, but both walked away with Class 1A state championships thanks to strong performances on Friday at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover. The Poets scored 74 points for a 25-point victory over McDonough, while Western Tech’s 77.5 points edged out Brunswick (74) and Friendly (70).
The Howard girls took first place in the second meet of the day — Class 4A — with 85 points, beating out Urbana (73). For the Lions, this was their first state title since 1995, and the boys tied for second with Severna Park, 20 points behind Walter Johnson.
Dunbar coach Dale Stalley, who’s been with the program for nearly 20 years, wanted the Poets to walk away with the crown, especially because of the the number of titles that other sports have won at the school.
“I was in awe of the success of Dunbar football and basketball,” Stalley said. “I just wanted one for us. I had a great group of kids who like athletics. They came together during this pandemic, and they wanted this.”
Aaron Charles and Tyreek Sykes helped lead the way. Charles won the 100-meter dash in 10.95 seconds to beat out Sykes (11.26). Later, Charles captured the 200 in 22.15 seconds.
He and Sykes, along with Marquil Green, combined to help Dunbar win the 400 (44.50) and 800 (1:32.01) relays. The Poets were in third place when Charles took the baton for the final lap, and he blew past everyone to give Dunbar first place. Those four victories gave Dunbar more than enough to secure that elusive first championship.
The Western Tech girls did not have a lot of depth with only 12 athletes on the team, but coach Clarissa Higgins gave a lot of credit to assistant coach Marquis Thornton, who guided the jumpers as they won twice in this meet.