By Kyle Wannen
For DigitalSports.com
Walter Johnson scored the first goal of yesterday's state semifinal girls lacrosse game, but that only seemed to motivate Westminster's team even more.
The Owls (16-1) went on to score six straight goals and 10 different players scored goals as they defeated the Wildcats 22-4 and moved on to the state championship.
"I feel like this year we have a really well-rounded team and everyone on our team can score," sophomore midfielder
Alyssa Semones said. "We're not selfish with the ball. We'll give it up for the better shot."
"The reason why we won is that we played as a team," Westminster coach
Jackie Stevens said. "Everybody touches the ball, everybody knows where their teammates are going to be and they just made that connection."
After the Wildcats scored the opening goal, the Owls went on the attack with great passing that set up a number of close shots and goals. Junior midfielder
Kelly Murkey assisted on the tying goal by
Hannah Zanti and then scored the go-ahead goal. Westminster never trailed after that point.
Semones led all scorers with six goals against Walter Johnson, five of which came off nice assists from teammates. The only other goal for Semones was a free position opportunity that she put home.
"I was just pumpedup for the team and I really wanted to make it to finals so it was great," Semones said.
"She was definitely on fire," Stevens said. "Her shots were connecting. The last couple of games I think she was getting frustrated with herself but this is the game that counted and she definitely got them in."
The high-powered offense for Westminster was really set up and executed behind the senior leadership of attackman
Ashleigh Rohrback, who finished the game with three goal and three assists.
"We like to use everyone on the team," Rorhback said. "We do the best we can to do that. We don't have one star, we get everyone involved in our attack."
"She's definitely a leader on attack," Stevens said. "She steps it up on attack and they know where to go."
Walter Johnson's Cinderella-story, which included defeating No. 2-seeded Blake and previously undefeated Churchill on their way to the semifinals, finally came to end. Everytime the Wildcats (11-4) would score it seemed that Westminster would score four goals or more consecutively. Senior attackman
Abby Bieber scored two goals to lead the Wildcats while attackman
Tess Petesch and midfielder
Rachel Skay each chipped in a goal.
"Like my coach said, we're going to look back and we're not going to remember losing," Bieber said. "We're going to remember beating Churchill, undefeated Churchill, and winning our region."
"I talked to my girls before and we talked about that we have heart and we will not give up regardless and they did that," Wildcats coach
Jen Greenberg said. "We were a class act out there and we gave it all we had."