Apr 7, 2008 3:00 AM  by Andrew Vitelli, The Examiner

BALTIMORE  - It took 10 years, but a squad in Maryland finally caught up with Mount Hebron’s girls lacrosse team.

The top-ranked Vikings, their sport’s most accomplished team in the history of high school athletics, lost to second-ranked John Carroll, 18-9, in a non-league game Homewood Field, marking their first setback to a state school since falling to St. Mary’s on April 19, 1998.

The Vikings (3-1) have won a state title in a National Federation of State High School Associations-record 11 consecutive seasons and 15 overall, but they weren’t the better team on Saturday.

Mount Hebron scored the first four goals against the Patriots (7-0) before the Harford County private school put the game away by scoring 11 of the next 12.

“It took 10 years for a local Maryland team to beat us,” Vikings coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland said. “Everybody loses, and this is not the end of us, this is just the start.”

The last time Mount Hebron, which has an enrollment limited to a portion of Ellicott City, lost to a public school was when it lost Annapolis, 11-10, in double overtime in the Class 4A/3A final in 1996. Since that loss, the Vikings have gone 161-3-1.

“It’s such a cycle in high school sports. You get the players for four years, and then you have to keep the winning and the success and the tradition of winning,” John Carroll coach Krystin Porcella said. “They’ve found the secret to year in and year out being good.”

Mount Hebron had its 103-game winning streak dating to 2001 — the loss that started the streak was to a private school in Virginia — snapped when the Vikings fell, 14-6, to West Genesee of Camillus, N.Y., last April. But the Vikings responded by winning the Class 3A/2A title with a 7-6 victory over North Harford.

But on Saturday, the Vikings’ youth caught up to them. Mount Hebron started just one senior — attacker Monica Zabel — against John Carroll’s eight, which included Ally Carey, who is considered one of the nation’s best players.

“We knew we could play that well,” said Patriots senior midfielder Casey Ancarron, who had five goals and two assists. “It all came together here.”

Said Porcella: “I think we came out a little flat, a little scared, and then had to get our feet wet a little bit. You could just see the attitude of the girls change in that timeout, like, ‘Wait a minute, we can play, we know what we’re doing out here.’”

Mount Hebron’s players were optimistic they would rebound from their first loss of the season to win the state title.

“We just have to try to click and work together as a team, just get things going,” said Mount Hebron junior midfielder Jessica Giles, who scored twice against the Patriots. “I think it’s going to be OK.”