King crowns Fallston in Class 1A title game
Senior’s hat trick lifts Cougars to their 2nd straight state title
Defending Class 1A state champion Fallston girls soccer picked up right where it left off in last year’s title game when star forward Katherine King scored 23 seconds into Saturday’s state final against South Carroll.
It turned out, King and the No. 14 Cougars had much more work to do this time at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex.
Finding themselves down a goal at halftime, the Cougars stayed persistent and found their way.
King added two more goals three minutes apart in the second half — the tying goal in the 54th minute and her 20th goal of the season in the 57th — as Fallston claimed a 3-2 win over the Cavaliers.
The Cougars, a 6-0 winner against Brunswick in last year’s title game, end the season with a 16-3 mark. In addition to the stern test from South Carroll (10-6-2) on Saturday, they also had to rally to beat Hereford in last week’s semifinal.
Under first-year coach Jon Salbeck, the Cougars started the season at what they called “Ground Zero,” and they closed it with the program’s sixth state crown.
“It’s pretty cool when you go into the locker room down, 2-1, and you look at these girls and they’re like ‘We’re not worried about this.’ They have so much confidence in themselves,” Salbeck said.
After studying game film, King and company were confident they could get behind South Carroll’s defense. The Cavaliers, who were playing in their first state title game, put up a strong effort, but the Cougars weren’t going to be denied.
With 26:40 left, King ran on to a through ball sent in by Abby Richard and finished from 14 yards to tie the game. Three minutes later, the Cougars got deep in the penalty area with Ellie Ajello finding Sarah Farally, who played a ball across to King right in front for the easy game-winner.
“I just tapped it in. Ellie and Sarah Farally did all the hard work and I couldn’t be happier for all the hard work they put in for that goal,” said King, who added 14 assists this season.
The Cavaliers, who went 5-5-2 during the regular season, gave their all in finding an equalizer in the remaining minutes, but Fallston’s defense held its ground.
Goals: SC — Malone, own; F — King 3.
Assists: SC — Mo. Guynn; F — Ajello, Richard, Farally.
Saves: SC — Inglesby 7; F — Rhinehart 3.
Half: SC, 2-1
No. 15 Fallston boys fall to Brunswick in 1A final
Most people would consider an overtime game-winner in a state championship game a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
For Logan Malone and the Brunswick boys soccer team, it’s a twice-in-a-lifetime thing.
Malone scored the championship-clinching goal less than two minutes into the first overtime of the Class 1A final against No. 15 Fallston, one-timing a layoff pass from Will Burton into the net from 6 yards to clinch the Railroaders’ second-straight title.
Malone, a senior, was the overtime hero in last year’s 2-1 state final victory against Fallston. Saturday, without telling his teammates, he brought his 2021 state championship medal to the game for inspiration. By the end of the day, he had two around his neck.
“I didn’t tell [my teammates] I was bringing it, but I knew we were going to win,” Malone said. “Honestly, I’m speechless. I saw it going in, and I was just like, ‘We did it again.’ ”
It was a deserved result for Brunswick (17-21), which mostly held the better of play and led Fallston 2-1 at halftime and throughout almost all of the second half. The dramatic finish came after Fallston scored a hard-earned goal to extend the game.
“Heartbreaking end,” Fallston coach Christopher Hoover said. “I felt confident in the guys the entire second half as we went through. We were moving the ball, connecting passes, we were doing a great job on defense, and we came through with the goal to tie it up with three minutes to go — we were cutting
it a little close. I thought we had the momentum going into overtime, and we just didn’t get it going.”
No. 5 Severna Park boys lose in 4A final
A one-goal game is one of the things Severna Park coach Ryan Parisi loves about soccer. It’s the essence of his favorite sport, the finest result of any.
But on a cold Saturday night at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex, that narrow outcome left his No. 5 Falcons team in tears after a 1-0 loss to top-seeded Bowie in the Class 4A state championship game.
A 1-0 score has been the fortune and folly of Severna Park’s state championship runs for 10 years now. It’s by that score the Falcons won
their third and most recent title in 2013. It’s by that score they fell in 2017.
“It’s a cruel game. The ball doesn’t always bounce the way you want it to,” Parisi said. “1-0 is the game of soccer. … They all hurt the same.”
At the beginning of the season, Parisi had not known whether this group would rise to the challenge. Looking back now, there’s not one thing he’d like to change.
“For me, it’s the journey. Our journey started on Aug. 12, and it’s been 99 days together — we maximized our time,” Parisi said. “As a coach, I’m just trying to get as much time with the team as possible.
“Sure, we didn’t win the last game. But we made a lot of great things throughout the entire year.”
Bowie senior Kareem Davis scored the lone goal with 37 minutes remaining.