By Dave Yanovitz

Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, April 6, 2008; Page D10

BALTIMORE, April 5 -- The chants came ringing from the Johns Hopkins University stands as the final minute ticked away. "It's all O-ver!" the John Carroll faithful yelled, re-affirming what a few hundred girls' lacrosse fans had witnessed over the previous 90 minutes.

For the first time in 10 years, a team from Maryland defeated 11-time defending state champion Mount Hebron, a program ranked No. 1 in the area and among the best in the nation. John Carroll, a private school from Bel Air in Harford County, overcame a four-goal deficit in the first half, controlled possession by winning a majority of the faceoffs, and coasted to a 17-9 victory.

The last Maryland team to beat Mount Hebron, according to longtime coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland, was St. Mary's-Annapolis in April of 1998.

"We're young this year. We knew going in it would be very tough to get possession [of the ball]," said McClelland.

"When we got the lead, they started to put together what we were doing, and we couldn't maintain possession."

John Carroll Coach Krystin Porcella acknowledged that her team was "nervous, a little flat, and a little scared" coming in. The Vikings (3-1) pounced early, getting goals from Monica Zabel, Jessica Giles, Ashley Bruns and Marta Chell for a 4-0 lead.

But John Carroll (7-0), ranked No. 3 by the Sun and the defending champions in Baltimore's premier private school league, has a more experienced lineup -- eight senior starters to Mount Hebron's one -- and soon began connecting on entry passes into the middle.

James Madison-bound Casey Ancarrow (five goals) found the net with 12 minutes 35 seconds left in the first half, catching a pass from behind the net and shooting past Vikings goalie Meghan Savage (11 saves). Less than a minute later, she scored again. Mount Hebron called timeout to quell the run, but to no avail.

In the next 67 seconds, the Patriots tied the game. Bruns gave the Vikings the lead back by curling from behind the net to score at the 8:26 mark, but John Carroll kept winning faceoffs and by halftime had a 7-5 lead.

In the second half, John Carroll senior Grace Gaeng scored five of her game-high six goals, and the Patriots stretched their lead to 11-5. Bruns tried to bring the Vikings back with her third and fourth goals in a 38-second span, but Patriots goalie Lauren McGehee was stellar down the stretch, making several nice saves.

"The coaches warned us they would make an adjustment," said Zabel, "but really, we just couldn't win draw control."