Lackey edges St. Charles in overtime
Nagle’s two goals spoils Spartans’ senior day
Looking to ride the emotional lift provided by their pregame senior day celebration, the St. Charles High School field hockey team emerged with plenty of spark in their meeting Monday afternoon with visiting Lackey. It was only the beginning of a two-hour emotional rollercoaster ride for the host Spartans.
St. Charles controlled play through much of a scoreless first half, but eventually it fell behind 2-0 midway through the second half on goals from Lackey’s Kayla Nagle and Caliya Cortner.
The Chargers appeared well on their way to spoiling the Spartans’ senior day plans until St. Charles senior Kate O’Meara scored with 6 minutes 21 seconds remaining and freshman Jenna Albertson tallied with 1 second to play, her first goal of the season.
With sunset looming and darkness likely to foil continued play on the upper unlighted field at St. Charles, both teams would eventually tangle for nearly the entire first 10-minute overtime.
Nagle tallied her second goal of the day with only 19 seconds remaining in the extra session and the Chargers were able to celebrate a 3-2 victory in the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division contest amid the darkness before heading toward their team bus.
“We definitely started off a little slow,” said Nagle, who is leaning toward attending Coastal Carolina next fall. “We beat them [4-2] at our place the first game, so I think we came in thinking we would take
them again. At halftime the coach [Erika Prate] gave us a little speech and we came out and played with a lot more energy in the second half.”
St. Charles (2-8 overall, 2-3 SMAC Potomac) had ample good scoring chances during a scoreless first half, but even quality shots by O’Meara, Savanna Hendricks and Corissa Jenkins were either wide of the target or kicked away by Lackey goalie Karissa Bannister. Chargers possessions usually fizzled just past midfield and the visitors looked destined to be the Spartans third straight victim.
But less than 10 minutes into the second half, Nagle gave the Lackey (5-4, 3-2) a 1-0 lead off an assist from fellow senior Jenna Clark, then five minutes later it was Cortner who gave the visitors a 2-0 lead and the Spartans’ senior day celebration now seemed foiled as the hosts reached the first valley of the emotional rollercoaster.
St. Charles finally regained its early first half form in the final 10 minutes of play and with just over six minutes remaining O’Meara gave the hosts a glimmer of hope with a hard, high shot that eluded Bannister and found the left corner of the net. Then in the waning seconds of play, shortly after being awarded a penalty corner, O’Meara wristed the ball to Jenkins who pushed the ball into the box and Albertson scored with 1 second remaining.
“In the last game we played [against McDonough], I told Jenna she was going to get a goal,” O’Meara said. The Chargers and Rams were scheduled to meet again on Tuesday. “She didn’t score that game, but she came through today. I cried when she scored. It was such an emotional day. It was like the culmination of four years
together. Now we’re hoping to win a playoff game.”
Nagle took all of the penalty corners for Lackey throughout the contest and typically looked for Clark at the top of the circle and Clark would invariably look to pass the ball back to Nagle heading toward the box. That tandem worked in unison superbly in the second half and the extra session and Nagle was able to just slip two goals past St. Charles senior keeper Rachel Hendricks.
“Me and Kayla have been playing together for four years and we know each other,” said Clark, who will celebrate her team’s senior night this evening at 7 against McDonough. “I was so happy to hear that last shot go in. When she got oneon-one with their goalie I knew she was going to score.”