Severna Park's Kathleen Barranco scored five goals in the Falcons 18-9 win over Broadneck. She had the first goal in their 7-0 rally.
Allison Behringer puts in one of her three goals past Morgan O'Brien and goalie Kasey Howard.
By Evan Roe
eroe@digitalsports.com
Carin Peterson just wasn’t satisfied with a one-goal lead over Broadneck on Saturday afternoon.
The Severna Park girls lacrosse coach thought that her girls had to bounce back from the miscues that Broadneck had used to keep the game close at 6-5 entering halftime. She thought that they needed to establish some distance.
Her players responded with an overwhelming 7-0 run out of the gates from which the Bruins just couldn’t recover, ultimately falling out of a first-place tie with the undefeated Falcons by a score of 18-9.
“They really needed to set the tone because at that time, in the first half, it was all Broadneck,” said Peterson, who felt that the Bruins had the upper hand going into the break. “Broadneck’s a great team and they can win. (We) just had to … take that momentum away.”
The outburst was ignited by junior Kathleen Barranco, who netted three goals in the first six minutes of the second half, and a dominating effort at the draw. Though Severna Park finished with just one more draw than Broadneck (14-13), they took five of the first six coming out of halftime.
“Draw control was the key, and we just kind of let them get that,” said Broadneck senior Karri Ellen Johnson.
Broadneck assistant coach Katy Kelley agreed, saying, “Against a team like Severna Park, you have to limit their opportunities and draw control is the way to do that. We weren’t capable of doing that in the second half, and they’re very good so they’re going to make the most of the opportunities we give them.”
The Falcons scored three times before the Bruins even had a sustained possession, a direct result of the first three draws of the half—all won by Severna Park. It was a different story in the first half.
“[It was] the small mistakes,” Severna Park senior Hayley Rausch said after finishing with three goals and two assists. “Missing the ball, not backing each other up, our talk on defense. That kind of stuff we definitely had to pick up and we did.”
In the first 25 minutes, Severna Park struggled to find an easy shot as the Bruin defense resisted penetration well and made the most of every Falcon turnover. Peterson didn’t think her offense was playing in sync but knew there was still time to turn it around.
“She just told us to start over and forget how we’d played in the first half,” said Barranco, who finished with a game-high five goals. “It was 0-0 and we just decided to be more patient on offense and our defense stepped up.”
But the Falcons weren’t the only ones who knew that the second half had the potential to be an entirely different game. The difference was the Falcon midfield, which fed the ball to its offense early and often.
“We knew we had to come out with high intensity and we knew they would come out fired up,” said Broadneck senior Shannon Hanratty, who scored once. “They just beat us to the punch and had a little bit more energy, I guess.”
“Something lapsed in the second half,” said Kelley. “Like I said, I think it was the draw control, and also getting down to a team like Severna Park can emotionally affect your team.
“I don’t think we did the best job of capitalizing on the opportunities we were given in the second half. We could have done more with the ball in the second half, whereas in the first half wed did capitalize on our opportunities.”
Both defenses did well for the better part of the game—a direct reflection of the stellar play of goalies Kasey Howard (Broadneck, 12 saves) and Jenna Wadsworth (Severna Park, 12 saves). Twenty-seven combined goals between the teams would seem to say otherwise, but much of the total is credit to two of the most explosive offenses in the area.
The back-and-forth first half, in which neither team led by more than one, was a better indicator of this as both goalies made a number of saves to keep the other side from jumping out on a big run like that which opened the second half.
Broadneck got three goals from both Johnson and Chelsea Thompson, while Lindsay Mitchell and Megan Eshleman each scored once. Johnson, Eshleman and Courtney Thompson all had assists.
In addition to Barranco (five goals) and Rausch (three goals, two assists), Severna Park got three goals and an assist from both seniors Allison Behringer and Julie Gardner. Kendall Pittinger scored twice, and Sam Farrell and Katie Cloud both had one goal.
Severna Park 18, Broadneck 9
SP (9-0, 7-0) 6 12 - 18
BN (7-2, 6-1) 5 4 - 9
GOALS: SP—Barranco (5), Pittinger (2), Rausch (3), Behringer (3), Farrell, Gardner (3), Cloud. BN—Johnson (3), Ch. Thompson (3), Hanratty, Eshleman, Mitchell. ASSISTS: SP—Rausch (2), Behringer, Gardner. BN—Johnson, Eshleman, Co. Thompson. SAVES: SP—Wadsworth (12). BN—Howard (12), Simpson. DRAWS: SP—13, BN—12.