St. Mary's High School junior Joanna Dalton (right) had three goals but it wasn't enough as Severn won in overtime.
With the entire season on the line and last week’s loss fresh on their mind, the
Severn School girls lacrosse team faced off against
St. Mary’s in a IAAM A quarterfinal match and was victorious in a thriller. The close battled required two three-minute overtime periods to ultimately determine the winner.
Both teams played each other just last week at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium where the Saints topped the Admirals in their final regular-season game 12-8. But it was the Admirals who settled the score Tuesday with an 11-9 win over visiting St. Mary’s.
The Admirals (12-5 overall, 9-4 in the conference) will meet McDonogh in the semifinals. The Saints finish their season at 12-8, 7-6.
Severn looked to make several adjustments from their regular season match a week ago.
"We wanted to win more this time and it actually counts now because you have to play or you go home," Severn sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Hook said.
"We needed to ride on their transition. We decided to play better body defense on the low girls."
In the first overtime period, senior midfielder Monica D’Ambrogi scored on a pass from classmate Alex Priddy, who was awarded a free-position following a foul.
In the second overtime period, Severn was comfortable with their one-point lead. The Admirals held the ball just out of reach of the Saints during the waning minutes until senior midfielder Josie Owens (four goals, two assists) sealed the deal with a goal before the horn sounded to end the overtime period.
"In overtime, we needed to win the draws," said Priddy, who finished with three goals and an assist. "It is nice to get up and then we can hold the ball and take the last shot. A big part of it was winning the draw in the second three minutes.
"Losing last week was a bummer and we really wanted to redeem ourselves and this is the playoffs, so it means a lot more.”
Both goalies -- senior Natalie Wills (St. Mary’s) and Hook (Severn) -- continued to impress as they each made key saves in regulation. Wills finished with 11 saves while Hook registered 12.
Hook made key stops during overtime to help the Admirals maintain their one-point advantage. Hook who normally shares time with sophomore Caroline Franke got the start and played the entire game and overtime.
"Goalies are a different breed altogether," Severn coach Renie Satiropoulos said. "Hannah sometimes works best under the most pressure.”
Satiropoulos credited her defense for their play in overtime.
"We gained possession of the draw and our D came up big in that second half of the overtime," she said.
Said Severn senior defender Kelsey Hughes: “In that overtime, defense was huge. We held the players that we needed to and took the left-handed shots away. We just needed to get the ground balls and that’s what we got in the end."
Severn came out fired up in the opening minutes of the game outscoring St. Mary’s 5-1 from two goals each by Priddy and Owens, and one from D’Ambrogia.
"St. Mary’s came out in the first game very well prepared for us and did exactly what you need to do to beat us," Sotiropoulos said. "They were better prepared and they worked harder. Much of what we were doing in the past week was to try to pick apart what they did and try to do some things that they weren’t expecting.”
At the 6:11 mark, the Saints began a mini run of their own, starting with a goal by junior midfielder Joanna Dalton. Senior midfielder Caroline Cochran and classmate Jen Fox each found the back of the net in the last two minutes before half to bring the game back into sight with a score of 5-4, in favor of Severn.
With so much at stake, the game was extremely physical and several players were flashed with yellow cards.
"Both teams really, really wanted it and it’s always been a rivalry between St. Mary’s and Severn," Hook said. "There was a lot of pushing today, especially on the people who were being face guarded."
In the opening minutes of the second half, Fox scored on an assist from senior attack Megan Schrum to tie the game at 5-5. The game continued with each team exchanging goals until Schrum, off a feed from Cochran, knotted the score at 7-7 for the fourth tied score of the game.
With 7:35 left, Cochran helped her team take the lead for the first time with a nice one-on-one move ending in her second goal of the game.
Owens scored unassisted for her third goal in regulation to tie the score for the sixth and final time at 9-9 to end the game in regulation and bring it to overtime.
"We had a week of focusing on small little adjustments to deal with how they picked us apart (last week)," Sotiropoulas said. "But it would still come down to a game like this, no matter how many adjustments you make and no matter how many adjustments they make, it still comes down to will."
St. Mary's (12-8) 4 5 0 - 9
Severn (12-5) 5 4 2 - 11
GOALS: SM - Dalton 3, Cochran 3, Fox 3, Schrum; SE - Owen 4, D'Ambrogi 3, Priddy 2, Lane, Rosson. ASSISTS: SM - Perkins, Dalton, Cochrane, Schrum; SE - Priddy 2, Carroll, Owen, Rosson. SAVES: SM - Wills 11; S - Hook 12. GROUND BALLS: SM - 37. DRAW CONTROLS: SM - 10; SE - 10.