Vasilios scores twice to lift No. 6 River Hill
Hawks’ victory clinches berth in state final against Crofton
With River Hill field hockey already leading by a goal, senior Maddie Vasilios thought she doubled the Hawks’ lead early in the fourth quarter. However, the goal was called off.
That provided Vasilios further motivation, and it didn’t take her long to respond. In fact, just 150 seconds. She took a pass from fellow senior Puja Nanjappa and buried a backhanded shot past Marriotts Ridge goalie Will Fullerton.
The goal extended the lead to two as the No. 6 Hawks defeated the No. 12 Mustangs, 2-0, at Glen Burnie to advance to Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game at Stevenson University. They’ll face No. 4 Crofton, which beat No. 7 Westminster, 6-3, in the other semifinal.
“Puja and I, we have such a good connection. We’ve been playing together for so many years,” Vasilios said. “We love just passing back and forth, using people as cones and just practicing and playing around. The connection that we have is really strong and just taking it down the field like that and ripping a shot, it was just amazing.”
Neither side broke through in the opening quarter, as the Hawks (16-2) failed to convert on their first four penalty corners. Fullerton denied Vasilios with a strong pad save, and the senior narrowly missed the cage on her
other attempts. However, on its fifth penalty corner, River Hill broke the stalemate.
After corralling the feed from Evelyn Dzubak, Vasilios spun around her initial defender to create more separation. Dribbling further wide to create a better shot angle, Vasilios chipped the forehand shot over Fullerton.
After River Hill took the lead, Marriotts Ridge’s offense struggled to maintain consistent possession. At the break, the Hawks maintained a one-goal advantage, with Fullerton making several strong stops for the Mustangs (11-5).
“The passing was beautiful,” River Hill coach Shelly Chamness said. “At halftime, we had 10 minutes, so we’re saying, ‘Visualize that ball going in the goal.’ I think that’s a lot of it. Usually, Maddie, she hardly ever misses, so just looking for that corner and putting it in there. Marriotts Ridge’s defense was good, which sometimes causes you to shoot a little bit wide because you can’t get the angle.”
Early in the third quarter, River Hill continued to control the possession with four penalty corners in the opening four minutes. Midway through the quarter, Marriotts Ridge senior Natalie Freeman was called for a green card. The Mustangs killed off the player-down situation and found some momentum, but were still unable to beat Hawks goalie Jocelyn Baker.
Fullerton delivered a pair of her 12 saves down the stretch to keep it a 1-0 game entering the final 15 minutes.
“I think we started out really strong and fast,” Marriotts Ridge coach Molly Milani said. “We had scoring opportunities in the very start of the game, we just struggled to finish. One thing that we talked about was making sure that we were shooting faster inside the circle. I would say we did a much better job of that in the second half because we weren’t fearful, we were stepping in there and looking to get it on cage. River Hill’s defense did a really nice job of keeping that high pressure so we didn’t have a lot of chances to get our hands free.”
Fifteen minutes from clinching a state final berth, River Hill continued to lean on its most experienced players. Working through Vasilios and Nanjappa on the attack, the Hawks’ offense broke through again, providing a valuable cushion against the Mustangs’ furious comeback attempt.
The win marked the Hawks’ 14th win in a row and third against the Mustangs this season. In those meetings, Vasilios combined for nine goals and two assists.
River Hill returns to the state championship once again, looking to avenge last season’s 2-1 loss to Arundel.
“The adrenaline I think and the pressure, too,” Vasilios said of what she looks forward to most about the state championship. “I love playing under that pressure, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s a huge step for the whole team to do something that’s so rare for so many teams to do.”