Concordia Prep lacrosse wins IAAM C Conference crown
Midway through the first half, Concordia Prep girls lacrosse coach Carlyn Stefanelli was not happy. After just giving up another goal to fall behind by four, a timeout was needed to get the Saints on track.
“I told them that we were making mistakes that we don’t usually make, and that we needed to get going,” said Stefanelli. “We had worked so hard to get here, and we just weren’t ourselves.”
The Saints responded almost immediately, scoring 15 of the next 19 goals to pull away for a 17-10 win over Catholic in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference championship Saturday at USA Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks.
The title was the program’s first at any level.
The No. 1 seed Saints (13-0) were led by freshman Sloan Hubbard’s eight goals. No. 2 Catholic (7-3) was led by Maura Barnes’ four goals.
The Cubs were the aggressors early. Catholic scored the first two goals and their aggressiveness seemed to surprise Concordia. The Saints managed to tie the game at 2, but Catholic started winning draws and taking advantage of defensive mistakes by the Saints to build a 6-2 lead behind Barnes’ three goals.
That’s when the timeout came. Concordia looked like a different team after that.
It got three straight goals by Hubbard, then one by Ceanna McGirt to tie the score at 6 with 3:11 left in the first half. The teams traded a pair of goals and were tied at 8 at halftime.
“I think we got in the locker room and asked ourselves if we really wanted this,” Hubbard said. “Our school has been trying for years for this and we didn’t want to waste this opportunity.”
They certainly didn’t. Concordia scored just 25 seconds in the second half on a goal by Molly Clapp to take a 9-8 lead. Just 1:11 later, Clapp scored again from point-blank range. The Saints got the prettiest goal of the game three minutes later when Hubbard scored on a behind-the-back shot for an 11-8 lead.
The Cubs got one back when Rachel Roane scored on a free position goal with 18:24 left to cut the margin to 11-9, but the Saints only allowed one goal the rest of the way to put the game away.
“This is a little overwhelming. It’s been really important to me because some of our alumni hadn’t gotten that title,” Stefanelli said. “This was my first senior class, so doing it for our legacy and for the school is something special.”
Other girls lacrosse scores:
St. John’s Catholic Prep 11, Park 10: Addison Scanlon has scored some big goals in her young career. Saturday night in Sparks, though, might have been the biggest of them all.
Scanlon scored on an 8-meter free position shot with 1:07 left in overtime to lift top-seeded St. John’s Catholic Prep to an 11-10 victory over No. 2 Park School in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference championship at USA Lacrosse Headquarters.
Scanlon led all scorers on the day with four goals, including the game-winner. Park was led by Cassandra Kitchen and Keenan Clark, who each scored three goals apiece.
The victory capped a wild finish that saw the Vikings (13-3) score late in regulation to tie the game, then have a goal disallowed, and then have to kill a penalty that carried over into overtime.
Baseball
Old Mill 7, North County 2: Old Mill had every reason to drive to North County’s rainy field on Saturday full of nerves. Instead, the Patriots radiated confidence.
Sure, the Patriots lost twice to the county championship runner-up already this spring, barely scraping together a run between the two games. But those games hardly mattered in the long run.
This one did.
In seven innings of drizzles to downpour, the No. 4 Patriots knocked out the Class 4A East Region I No. 1 seed, 7-2.
“There’s no expectations for us,” Patriots coach Charlie Chaffin said. “No one looks at us as a serious contender. So, we’ll play that role and go have fun.”
The Patriots (12-10) next face the winner of No. 3 Glen Burnie and No. 2 Arundel in the region final at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Ty Jacoby got ahead on his fastballs, struck out two and limited a crew of All-County caliber hitters to five hits and three walks in 6 innings to earn the win for Old Mill.