Scholastic Notes

Delmarva region

VIRGINIA

UNBREAKABLE STAFFORD WINS IT ALL

The Stafford (Va.) field hockey team has been carrying a bundle of decorated twigs since the end of its regular season. And for a very good reason.

"We each created one stick, that says who we are, and we tied it together with a blue bandanna," says defensive midfielder Kim Robinson. "If we play with just one person, we'll be defeated. If we play together, like a bundle of sticks, there's nothing that can break us."

And with an unbreakable will and a supreme effort on a gorgeous day for hockey at Virginia Commonwealth University, Stafford won the VHSL Class AAA championship with a 2-1 win over Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.), which had gotten to the state championship game for the fifth time in the past six years.

"You can demand, and have high expectations, but you've got to have the clay to work with," says Stafford head coach Robin Woodie. "And they definitely are the clay. They're just awesome young ladies."

The road the Indians took through the eight-team bracket solidified their place in the upper half of the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10; in beating Princess Anne, Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.), and Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.), Stafford vanquished teams that had won 14 out of the last 16 VHSL championships.

"Every team we played was a state champion at one point in time," Woodie said. "That made it all sweeter."

The game was won in the 40th minute when Lauren Sullivan made a cheeky backhander that found the far post after drawing attention from the Princess Anne defense.

"I was in the right place at the right time," she said modestly.

But Sullivan had been in slight peril of not even playing after an incident in the 10th minute.

"I got hit in the head," she said. "She had her head down, and she bumped me in the side of the head."

Sullivan was sent back into the fray a few minutes later.

The game-winning goal, however, was not the defining moment of the match. Instead, it was the single untimed corner Stafford nailed at the end of the first half. With Princess Anne holding a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a Katie Price rebound, Stafford back Lauren Elstein stared into a glaring sun to pick up a corner signal from the bench and noted the the corner option was coming to her.

"It was our last chance to score in the half, and no matter who was in the circle, we wanted someone to finish it," Elstein said. "It's actually one of my favorite corners, because it was made up by my assistant coach. It was an unusual corner, which is why I think it worked so well this year."

The Indians worked an option-left corner to perfection, and Elstein blasted the ball into the far corner to tie the match. Momentum had swung back to Stafford's side, nullifying Princess Anne's splendid opening half.

Eventually, what allowed Stafford to hold the lead for the last 20 minutes was its defense. Robinson, Lindsay Shacklette, and Rebecca Sullivan played marvelously in front of goalkeeper Carrie Thompson.

"We talked a lot about possession, keeping your head in the game, stay moving, call for the ball," Robinson said. "And just get the ball back up the field."

But Princess Anne did itself no favors. Countless times, Princess Anne misfired on free hits in between the 25-yard lines, and a five-minute yellow card midway through the second term made the Cavaliers play short in the dying minutes.

The victory represented a personal journey of discovery and hockey-building for Woodie. When she left the field hockey coaching job at Woodbridge (Va.) and moved some 20 miles south to Stafford (Va.) in 1998, she reflected the migration from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. to what are known as the "ex-urbs" of north-central Virginia.

By 2005, Stafford County had five high schools where there had been just two. Construction consumed what had been forests and arable land. Stafford High grew bigger, along with the available player pool.

But that's not why Stafford was the No. 5 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 the week heading into the VHSL AAA Tournament. The reason is that Woodie has gotten her players to take the game of field hockey as seriously as players in hockey-mad Virginia Beach, if not moreso.

"They love the game," Woodie says. "And because they love the game, they are participating in it more and more. You can't expect to pick up a stick in August and compete with a Cox or a Princess Anne."

"I'm all about hockey," Elstein said. "I played other sports in the past, but we now concentrate on hockey."

And the program has progressed past the point of teaching, and into the creation of a winning culture, one which the motivation is not just competition, not just numbers, and not just respect.

"A lot of it's about hard work, but a lot of it is what we mean to each other," Elstein said. "We're so close to each other, we all have faith in each other, and we don't want to let anybody down. We work every second of every day for our selves, for our team, but most of all, for each other. To go 24-0, we knew we had to do that together."

Like an unbreakable bundle of sticks.

COURTLAND TAKES AA TITLE OVER CHANCELLOR

Is it an educated guess that there is some spillover from what the AAA schools have been doing for years in to the ranks of Virginia's smaller schools?

You might think so, given the gripping 4-3 win on the part of Spotsylvania Courtland (Va.) over Fredericksburg Chancellor (Va.) in the AA/A title match.

Haylee Gunnoe's breakaway goal in the 49th minute was the game-winner in this run-and-gun game that saw a little of everything, including a penalty stroke.

"I felt it as soon as we got on the field this morning. I knew we were going to do it," Gunnoe tells The Free Lance-Star. "We always click together as a team and we're always a family. But this game we had so much more passion. It was literally a family bonding that drove us today."

Or, perhaps, karma. The AA/A final of 2005 featured the exact two same opponents, the exact final score, and even the exact game-winning-goal scorer in Gunnoe.

"It's kind of eerie, actually," Courtland head coach Amy Anderson tells The Washington Post.

STAFFORD BEATS COX IN FINAL-WORTHY MATCH

Because the Virginia High School League pre-seeds its regional semifinalists in the Class AAA state tournament, before knowing exactly who will fill the eight slots in the single-elimination bracket, there are times when the best game of the seven actually occurs in the first round.

With all due respect to the other six teams, all eyes were on the quarterfinal match between Stafford (Va.), the No. 5 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 heading into the week of the tournament, and No. 10 Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.), the 13-time state champion which had been enjoying perhaps its best season in a decade.

With two of the best field hockey teams in the country on the pitch at the same time, it would take an extraordinary effort to win the match. With the game tied at 1-1 with minutes remaining, Stafford threw in an offensive surge, earning seven consecutive short corners.

When an eighth Stafford corner was called, Lindsay Shacklette looked to the sideline for a signal from head coach Robin Woodie as to what corner to call. What she and the Indians' corner attack squad received was, instead, a sentence rather than a signal.

"Shack, we have unfinished business," Woodie said.

Shackette called her own number on the next corner, blasting a 1-Up corner off the Cox corner flyer and under the crossbar to give Stafford a 2-1 win in a game worthy of a state championship final.

"We have so much trust in each other," Shacklette tells The Free Lance-Star. "We're a team. Nobody can take us out of our game at this point."

And the Indians' game, despite scoring more than 100 goals in 2005, could be its defense. Cox, which had one of the nation's highest team goal-scoring totals in 2005, was held to one shot in the second term.

"We didn't look at them like they were some powerful team, or that they were so much better than us. They were just another team we had to play," Shacklette told The Free Lance-Star.

"They were getting short corner after short corner and you just feel like they are eventually going to score when it's like that," Cox's Wesley Drew told The Virginian Pilot. "They had great hits and some powerhouse shots. It just didn't work out for us."

Stafford had fallen behind in the 26th minute on a Taylor Herrell rebound goal. But the resilient Indians struck a minute later as Jackie Tate deflected a drive inside the circle that found its way into the cage.

VIRGINIA "TIPPING POINT" MATCHES HAVE THEMES

As the Virginia High School League's Class AAA Tournament headed towards the last four rounds, the four regions each have semifinal games which see the winners guaranteed two more matches (regional final, plus a first-round state game), with the losers going home.

Within each region, stories abounded and themes played themselves out.

In the Northern Region, the matchups included two veteran teams with vast state tournament experience, playing alongside two teams which had never been in the regional tournament before.

The twist is that the two first-time teams played each other: Falls Church Marshall topped Chantilly Westfield 2-1 on a 50th-minute goal from Sam Mills.

The senior stands barely 5-foot-5, but might be one of the toughest field hockey players in the country. On the goal, she bullrushed the Westfield circle from the left side in the run of play and willed the ball past a sprawling defense.

This from a player listed as a fullback.

And in the final minutes of play, with Westfield being awarded a series of short corners, Mills got hammered on the left shin just above her ankle with a stick on the first corner of that series. After rolling around for a few seconds, getting her blue crop top all dirty, she lined back up with her corner defense unit. And kept defensing corners.

"It's in pain right now, but it's the semifinals, and I wasn't going to let it stop me," Mills said after the match. "There was less than two minutes left, and I was like, 'No way am I going to stop.'"

The odd thing was, that ankle had been sprained the afternoon of the game during a strength-and-conditioning session in which she was playing basketball.

"The girl is amazing," says Marshall head coach Christine Carroll. "She carries our team along with Lauren (Byrne). She's the most intense player I've ever coached. Sam goes 150 percent on the field all the time."

The result kept Westfield, a team in just its sixth season of play, from its first state tournament berth. However, you get the feeling that the Bulldogs are a team which is destined to be a dominant force once it learns how to win the tough matches -- kind of like the 1960s-era Dallas Cowboys or the U.S. men's soccer team of the early 21st Century.

"We're looking to build on that experience," says head coach Terri Towle, who has been on the pitch for every Westfield varsity field hockey match. "Once you get this far, you have had a great season."

Westfield is now the largest high school in the state of Virginia, and it had an impressive result in the tournament when it beat Patriot District champion Burke Lake Braddock (Va.), a six-time regional champion.

Championship tradition permeated the other Northern semifinal as former winners Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) and Annandale (Va.) met for the other state tournament berth.

Woodson took a 2-0 lead shortly after the interval, but had to hold on for a 2-1 win. Rachelle Jackson scored her first goal of the season to open the scoring on a nice high-low corner, then co-captain Lizi Gericke sent the ball into the cage in the 34th minute.

The Cavaliers had played the brand of skilled hockey that made them three-time Northern Regional champions, but found themselves on retreat the final 20 minutes, thanks to Annandale's pressure and several uncharacteristic mistakes.

Julie Tumasz pulled one back for the Atoms in the 49th minute, but the team could get no closer.

"You've got to have a little luck, but we're going back (to the state tournament)," said Woodson coach Andy Muir. "We played them twice already, and were fortunate to beat them in the district final, and beat them 2-1 in the regular season. They were close games, and we didn't expect anything less from this one."

In the Central region, Prince George (Va.) earned its way to the state tournament with a 1-0 win over the only magnet school remaining in the field, Richmond Maggie Walker (Va.). It is only the fourth year of existence for the sport at the school.

Appropriately, the team's star scorer Peyton Fannin had the game-winner midway through the second term on a penalty corner.

Christa Brown and a phalanx of Prince George defenders did the rest, withstanding 10 minutes of pressure from the wily Dragons at the end of the match. But Brown had to make just one save, and that's because of the impositions of the fine back six of Sidney Garcia, Beth South, Kelly Eggleston, Gina Simpson, Stefanie Wade and Erika Magee.

"I was already enthralled," Brown tells The Petersen Progress-Index. "This team is very consistent. We just had to stay tight."

In the other Central match, 2003 state champion Midlothian James River (Va.) needed an overtime penalty stroke in order to get by Chester Thomas Dale (Va.).

Ally Weir potted the stroke on Dale's Karrie Bridges after the ball was covered in the scoring circle.

In the Northwest, the theme was about sending a message. Culpeper (Va.) sent a message of revenge to Woodbridge Forest Park (Va.), which had beaten the Devilettes during their homecoming week.

Culpeper, which had a 15-2-1 mark coming in, wanted nothing better than to retribution: and there was no better time to do so than in the "tipping point" match.

"They were bound and determined," Culpeper head coach Peggy Allen tells The Potomac News. "They were focused on getting this team back."

The Devilettes took the lead in the first half, but two goals sandwiching the interval by Katie DeJarnett and Mary McCarthy were the ultimate expression of Culpeper's effort.

But there was an even larger expression in the other Northwest tipping-point match. If there was any doubt as to whether Stafford head coach maintained any sentimentality towards Woodbridge (Va.), for which she was formerly head coach, it was undeniably obliterated in 2005. Stafford throttled Woodbridge, 13-0.

It was such a total and complete devastation, Stafford goalkeeper Carrie Thompson was sent into the fray with a white crop top and blue kilt to try to score a goal. She did register one of the Indians' 33 shots on the Woodbridge goal.

"They are just an awesome group to watch, and they work so hard," Woodie tells The Free Lance-Star. "They expect a challenge all the time and we have been having a problem with scoring early and we talked about that slump."

The No. 9 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 heading into November, the Indians have had some uncomfortably close results in the weeks after the Sun Devil Invitational, during which they beat Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.).

The rematch could come sooner than most might think: the Southeast Region is paired off with the Northwest region in the state quarterfinal round. And in that Southeast Region, Princess Anne qualified with a 2-1 overtime win over Norfolk Maury (Va.).

Rebecca Wagner scored the second of her two goals in the second minute of overtime, snaring a rebound and stuffing it over the line.

"Oh man, my heart was rushing when that shot got saved," Wagner tells The Virginian-Pilot. "I just saw the ball and swept it in."

The Cavaliers' dance partner in the state tournament turned out to be Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.), a 3-1 winner over Suffolk Lakeland (Va.). Carly Rosenmeier had goals in the 18th and 39th minutes for the Falcons, the No. 3 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 heading into that week of play.

"We definitely played with more intensity today," Rosenmeier tells The Virginian-Pilot. "We're going to States again, but we're only looking at Princess Anne right now."

NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER GETS SOMETHING SPECIAL

When the 15 hockey-playing schools in The Beach District get together, the schedulemakers ensure that each team gets four matches at the National Training Center, the dual-turf hockey-specific facility on which the senior women's national team practices.

So when Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.) and Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) finished tied atop the District standings, the teams needed to engage in a one-game playoff to see where the two teams will be seeded in the Southeast Regional Tournament, there was only one place to play the game.

The area field hockey intelligentsia made the trip down Landstown Road the third Saturday of October for a game that was anticipated to be one for the ages.

And it was, as Cox, playing perhaps its best hockey since it won a then-national record seventh straight state championship in 1995, took down Princess Anne 2-0.

Taylor Harrell converted a stiff Carly Rosenmeier cross for the first goal in the first term, then corner inserter Kaitlyn Hiltz worked a return pass from Wesley Drew in the 52nd to end matters.

"We needed that one," Hiltz tells The Virginian-Pilot. "Especially knowing and respecting that Princess Anne can score as quickly and easily as they can. We were a little slow on our penalty corners at first. But we called a timeout and made some adjustments that worked."

The Falcons had earned 10 corners to the Cavaliers' six.

It was much the same way two days earlier when the teams battled to a 2-2 draw after 60 minutes of overtime and 30 minutes of lung-searing overtime in front of more than 500 spectators and a school marching band.

"This thing definitely lived up to its billing," Cox head coach Julie Swain had told the Virginian-Pilot. "But we're a little disappointed because we had a lot of chances. But we like playing on turf and I relish the chance to play them again on it."

Cox outshot the Cavaliers 14-4 and earned 23 corners in the preliminary match. That should tell you how good the Princess Anne corner defense team was, starting with the presence of goalkeeper Heather Bustanoby.

"She's amazing, for sure," Princess Anne coach Denise O'Connell told The Virginian-Pilot. "This game was more than what everybody expected and she knows how to come through in those situations."

Bustanoby had 12 saves on the day, four in golden-goal overtime. She followed that performance with 11 saves in the one-game playoff.

UNLIKELY TEAM LED BY UNLIKELY SCORER

Heading into November, the roster of players scoring 25 or more goals in the 2005 season had its usual suspects such as Palmyra (Pa.) sniper Kelly Fitzpatrick, Rye (N.Y.) phenom Ashley McCauley, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) scorer Meghan Bain, and Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.) stalwart Amie Survilla.

But perhaps the most unusual story amongst the nation's leading scorers is that of Peyton Fannin, who had amassed 25 goals and 10 assists by the end of the third week of October.

Her team, the Royals of Prince George (Va.), started its field hockey program in 2001, when Fannin was a freshman in high school. Having played several sports and having done some cheerleading, she wanted a new challenge.

"I really liked the aggressiveness and the competitiveness of field hockey," Fannin tells The Richmond Times-Dispatch. "I really get an adrenaline rush playing it."

Today, the Royals are the terror of the Central District, and are looking to build off the disappointment of 2004, when the team lost its first-round Central Regional Tournament game to Richmond Maggie Walker Governor's School (Va.), failing to get to the "tipping point" matches for qualification for the state tournament.

"She can rifle a shot to the goal," PG head coach B.J. Patton tells The Times-Dispatch. "She really lets it fly. Another big thing is that she has taken a strong leadership role for us. She's so unselfish, is quick and is a great defender."

PEREZ, CHIPKEVICH ENSURE PATRIOT BATTLE IS DRAWN

A splendid 60 minutes of hockey were played out on the Bermuda grass floor of J. Wallace Bolding Stadium in Annandale, Va. when host Annandale took on Burke Lake Braddock (Va.) for first place in the Patriot District.

Those splendid 60 minutes turned into a splendid 90 minutes as the two teams, having played a goalless regulation, went into golden-goal overtime to decide the game.

And those splended 90 minutes turned into about 91 1/2 minutes as Braddock, having been awarded a corner in the the final seconds of overtime, earned two more after the clock expired. But goalkeeper Michelle Perez and her Annandale teammates shut the door even as passes exposed yawning gaps in the tiring Atoms' shorthanded corner defense unit. The game ended goalless.

"Neither team wanted to give up that goal," said Annandale head coach Cindy Hook. "There were scoring opportunities everywhere, but we came up strong. Michelle went down twice to stop shots in those corners at the end."

Besides Perez, defenders Allie Wheeler and Julianne Simpson had tremendous games on the defensive end for Annandale.

"She's a soccer goalie," Hook says. "And she already has that mentality."

On the other end of the field, Lake Braddock goalkeeper Mary Chipkevich was equally as strong, having withstood an Annandale penalty corner fusillade in the 88th minute.

"This is Chipper's only second year of playing goal; she's a soccer goalie," Miler says. "She finally came out junior year after playing club soccer."

Over the years, Braddock and Annandale had some memorable matches, but rarely has a goalless draw such as the one played in early October been worthy of such literature.

That's because there is a lot more at stake in the District and Regional tournaments coming later in the season. The games will likely be close enough to be decided in overtime, beaning that the regular-season game was a proving ground for little subtleties like the necessary substitition pattern needed to keep the 7-on-7 unit fresh.

"I asked the kids at the beginning of overtime, 'Are you OK?' And they said, 'I'm fine.' And then you can watch them out there and they're bending over tired. But it's hard to sub in here, because if you want to sub, you're taking a risk because you're almost playing down a man."

"That was our first overtime game, and we did a good job of building into the attack," Hook said. "A lot of times, that's really hard to do. Emotions are really crazy and they just want to slam it down to the other end. And that usually doesn't work."

The Bruins had their own successes in the 7-on-7 period, as seniors Leslie Cabe and Brooke Postlewaite demonstrated great ball possession skills under pressure.

"Both teams had so many chances to score," Miller said. "You're sitting here with your heart in your mouth, saying, 'Just one, tap it in there!' But both goalies played exceptionally well."

STAFFORD STUNS PRINCESS ANNE IN SUN DEVIL INVITATIONAL

The 2005 Sun Devil Invitational may have lost a little of its mystique in 2005 without defending champion St. Mary's School of Johannesburg, South Africa.

But it didn't lose the drama. Oh, no.

In a stunning upset in the finals, Stafford (Va.) knocked off Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.), the No. 5 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com preseason Top 10, 1-0 on a late Lauren Elstein goal at the National Training Center in Virginia Beach.

"The girls know they can't get big heads or get cocky at all," head coach Robin Woodie tells The Free Lance-Star. "It was really nice going to school today, everybody was smiling. Now they know it's time to get back to business."

The Indians had not conceded a goal all season, and that pattern continued at Landstown Road. Wins over Salem (Va.) and Richmond St. Catherine's (Va.) were followed by an overtime win against Norfolk Maury (Va.).

"We knew we'd never see them unless we made it to the final," Woodie told The Free Lance-Star. "It was definitely something the girls were looking forward to."

The game avenged last year's 2-1 loss to the Cavaliers in the state tournament.

MAGGIE WALKER MAKING WAVES

If it's Virginia, you have to believe that somewhere a magnet-school field hockey team is progressing in the young season. Richmond Maggie Walker Governor's School (Va.), a magnet for learning civics and government, just happens to have an undefeated field hockey team six matches into the 2005 campaign.

And, according to head coach Paige Hawkins, the team could have the kind of edge that the likes of Virginia Beach Ocean Lakes (Va.) and Alexandria Thomas Jefferson (Va.) had in sneaking up on their rivals.

"I feel like the girls feel confident enough in themselves to proceed," Hawkins tells The Richmond Times-Dispatch. "We're excited about hopefully being in the tournament. We're not trying to get too far ahead. We're still taking it one game at a time. But we're excited."

OAKTON, WOODSON HAVE HOMECOMINGS OF SORTS

When Oakton (Va.) traveled to Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.) for an early interdistrict game, the game represented two teams in the midst of season-long homecomings.

For Oakton, the 2005 season is a homecoming for Lizzie and Molly McManus, two of the great stars of Oakton field hockey lore who went on to play in the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference.

Molly, who went to the University of Virginia, is one of two assistant coaches (lacrosse head coach Jean Counts is the other) under head coach Lizzie, who graduated from the University of Maryland.

The challenge for them, as for most coaches who have been exposed to high-peformance levels of competition, is how to get teenagers to buy into the way they used to play.

"Ever since I left, the classes get better and better, because they start playing at a younger age," says Lizzie McManus, who takes over for long-time skipper Marsha Ehrsam. "Ten years ago, they didn't. I've been getting ninth-graders who have been playing for four or five years."

Good thing, since the team lost 10 seniors from last year's team. The only returner, Kathleen Moran, is a fluid, solid central defender who is in the mold of -- who else? -- the McManus sisters, who both starred at center back for Oakton.

"She's got a lot to do this year," Lizzie McManus said of her team captain. "She's our leader on both sides of the ball, and she exudes this energy that spreads to her teammates."

These days, Oakton's style of play is one which is opportunistic, but it couldn't stop Woodson from taking a 3-0 win on the day.

For Woodson and head coach Andy Muir the 2005 season is a different kind of homecoming. When he first came to the school in 1994, he was obligated to share field space with the school's football team. The team didn't win a game at the football stadium.

After moving to another pitch on campus, he built the program to a 2003 Virginia High School League state championship in amongst three straight appearances in the VHSL tournament.

Now, Muir and his Cavaliers are back at Pat Cunningham Stadium -- but the place has changed. The crown in the center of the park is minimized, and the pitch is a Bermuda grass of golf-course quality. The field hockey team has a sharing arrangement with the football team similar to the arrangement at Garden City (N.Y.).

And with the smoother surface, it will allow the Cavaliers' skilled players like Michaela Seigo and Lisl Gerecke to create matchup problems for the opposition.

But what could carry the Cavaliers through is their defense. Goalies Janelle Barth and Louise Gericke have been tremendous thus far for the team.

"I've got two exceptional goalkeepers -- and the unfortunate side for them is that they may not get tested as much in the games because the defense tends to limit the opposition's chances," Muir says. "They're two of the best goalkeepers I've ever coached -- and that includes the travel team (Rampage). If you hold the other team scoreless you have a better than even chance of winning the game."

The shutout thing sounds like a good strategy. Heading into the Sun Devil Invitational at Virginia Beach, the Cavaliers had three shutouts in three matches.

THOMAS JEFFERSON GETS NEW 2005 CHALLENGE

The 2003 and 2004 seasons saw Alexandria Thomas Jefferson (Va.) play some of the best hockey ever seen at the science-and-technology magnet school.

So what was the Colonials' reward for making the state tournament's Elite Eight? A change in competition.

Teri Davis' crew used to play in the Concorde District, with its competition coming mainly from Oakton (Va.) and Centreville (Va.). But a realignment for 2005 sees Jefferson in the Liberty District, which means its competition will come from 2003 state champion Fairfax W.T. Woodson (Va.).

It also means that the transfer of star junior Allie Heon to Chantilly Westfield (Va.) won't mean anything in District competition, but it will mean a whole lot in the Northern Regional tournament. Stay tuned.

MARYLAND

MARYLAND FINALS A MIX OF THE FAMILIAR AND THE VERY NEW

In the Maryland Public High Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) state championship games, the gameday path to College Park was undoubtedly the longest for Class 2A finalists Salisbury Parkside (Md.) and Lusby Patuxent (Md.). The teams are located deep in the southeast corner of the state near the ocean, meaning each team had to travel some two hours to the north side of the Washington Beltway for a final held right at the start of rush hour.

And if any of supporters got caught in a knot of traffic along the way, they were liable to have missed one of the great pre-game speeches of our time. How else do you explain Parkside's dream start, courtesy a Katy Lamboni corner blast just 47 seconds in?

"I told them, 'Go out there and leave everything you have on this field. This is the last game you have this season, and if you can step off this field saying you played the best came you could, no matter the outcome, then I will be proud of you,' " said former Delaware All-American Jodi Byrd Hollaman, the former Pocomoke City star. "They're my words, but I learned them from others: my father, my aunt (her high school coach Sue Pusey), and (Delaware head coach Carol) Miller."

The early goal was the worst possible thing that could have happened to Patuxent, which had come to The Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex at the University of Maryland the day before to see an NCAA quarterfinal, just to see the site of competition.

The wide-eyed Panthers, playing for their first field hockey championship in the school's 10-year history, continued to play a nervous type of hockey into the second term. Parkside's second goal was a product of those jitters; a cross from the right wing snuck through the Patuxent rearguard, allowing Stacey Lamboni to sneak the ball over the line.

"I've got just one senior," Byrd Hollaman said. "I'm elated, and I'm still like, 'Pinch me.' "

Patuxent, however, kept pressing at three-quarter time for a proximity goal, energizing a large group of supporters in the stands. Their cheers were almost rewarded when a penalty corner shot went into the cage late, but the umpires ruled correctly that the shot came from just outside the scoring circle.

"The seniors are like idols to the younger players, because nobody starts picking up a stick until ninth grade," Patuxent head coach Lynn Powell said. "For us, those freshmen and sophomores are the ones who will be starting the tradition."

With all of the passion in the stands, you wouldn't know that both schools were going for their first field hockey championship.

But the 4A final between Edgewater South River (Md.) and Silver Spring Springbrook (Md.) saw the last two Class 4A title-winners, so these teams knew what it took to win. Both teams played some enterprising hockey, but only South River managed to cash in on its chances in a 3-0 win.

The Seahawks swarmed the Springbrook goal and popped in the opening field goal in the first half, then got a rebound on a corner with about eight minutes to go. South River had been awarded a rather fortunate corner when Springbrook committed a needless obstruction foul in the circle as an errant ball was heading over the endline, seemingly for a 16-yard free hit coming out.

"That's a bit of an iffy call," said Springbrook head coach Kearney Francis, the TopOfTheCircle.com United States Coach of the Year for 2003. "But it's something you have to live with."

The Seahawks' third goal, by contrast, was absolute literature. In the final minute of regulation, Nicki Blowe led a 3-on-1 break down the right wing and slipped an elegant, well-weighted ball that beat the angle of the pursuing Springbrook defense and allowed forward Molly Gregoire to slide the ball into the cage. From beginning to execution, the play may have been the single best piece of hockey since the MPSSAA finals moved from Towson to College Park in 2002.

"I felt as though if we kept our stick on the ball, we got the ball forward," said South River first-year head coach Katie Corcoran. "We didn't have a goal like that all year."

Despite the scoreline, the game was a strong statement on the part of Springbrook. The team's miracle run through to the 2003 state title turned out not to be a fluke. The 2005 team had four members of that state title team, and rebuilt the team with a series of players with some extraordinary attributes.

Larissa Rodney's outstanding quickness, the amazing hitting of Leah Arthur and Kelly Callan, the creative attacking of Lauren Kessler, and the defensive prowess of defensive midfielder Hanh Nguyen were enough to get three one-goal victories in the state playoffs. But in the Seahawks, the Blue Devils met their match.

"They were a very good team; we tried hard, but they got to the ball first," Nguyen said. "We didn't have any all-stars, but we worked very well as a unit."

One big reason the Blue Devils could not get on the board was the return of South River's corner defense team. The quartet of Gregoire, Hope Battista, Kelly Patterson and Heather Bresnahan played extremely well in the game as well as in the entire MPSSAA Tournament. It must be emphasized that South River only gave up two goals in the postseason.

There were, however, changes in that corner defense lineup. Battista, the team's trailer, was shifted to flyer after Patterson broke a bone in her hand the previous match. In addition, the team put Virginia Jorden in the goalie pads, replacing her graduated sister Irene.

In the Class A final, Pocomoke City (Md.) won its 13th state championship with a 1-0 win over Rising Sun (Md.) in a game which was anything but easy. The young Tigers had their usual transition game, especially on the artificial turf, to take the early initiative away from the defending champions.

"The first half was our game, but we didn't get lucky," said Rising Sun head coach Gail Dillaway. "We had them set back on their heels, and if we had gotten a goal in the first half, it was our game."

The Indians responded, completely dominating the second term, firing shot after shot on the goal cage. But the efforts were limited to corner shots without rebounds or solo runs into the circle.

That is, until the 56th minute of play. Rising Sun had seemingly repelled a meek Indian surge, but Amber Holland rescued the ball and slapped it to teammate Kirstin Dennig, whose touch pass to an open Leigha Peterson gave P-City the lead.

"Come to think of it," said head coach Sue Pusey, "it was one of the first sustained passing sequences we had all game."

From thence, it was up to the Pocomoke defense to withstand the Tigers' pressure. Fullback Kasey Cowger came up with several huge defensive efforts as the Indians' corner flyer.

And the Indians' corner defense team held together even when the Tigers worked the ball around Cowger. On a 59th-minute corner, Rising Sun was denied by back Brittany Massey's defensive save, then Indians' goalkeeper Sarah Scher came up with a pair of timely saves, including a one-handed waist-high stick save that negated a sure goal.

"I was amazed at that stick save," Cowger said. "She knew how to play it down, and she played it like she was supposed to."

"She's my big hero," Pusey said of her freshman goalkeeper, the third of three field hockey-playing Scher sisters. "She only started playing goal two years ago."

"Everytime I go out there I get better because of all my coaches and teammates," Scher said. "Pocomoke field hockey has been my inspiration: I've always wanted to play for this team and win state championships like my sisters."

The final match of Maryland's state championships was a crackling, energetic meeting between Fallston (Md.) and Severna Park (Md.). Possessors of 23 state championships between them, the teams met in a cauldron of color and sound which befitted the teams' collective championship heritage.

Severna Park became only the second high school ever to amass 15 state field hockey championships with a 2-0 win.

The Falcons took the lead in the first half when Amanda Himmelheber knocked in a 1-Up corner. It was, oddly, one of only five total shots at goal all game.

"We needed to do something those first 15 minutes when we were doing really, really well, but around the time they scored, our inexperience on turf was beginning to show," said Fallston head coach Alice Puckett. "And the fact that we didn't score when we were playing well worried them a little bit."

That can be credited to the defensive midfielders and backs of both teams, which only seemingly allowed long blasts which were cleared either by the initiative of the backs, or by strong goalkeeper pads.

But one ball which was not cleared led to the game-clincher for Severna Park in the 49th minute. And, as it turned out, the Falcon that swooped on that ball had prepared for an entire year for the moment.

Allison Behringer doesn't remember the bus trip home after the 2004 state final in which the Falcons lost on a single untimed penalty corner at the end of double overtime. Since that awful, silent bus ride home, she and the returning members of the team did everything they could to get back to the 3A final and win.

To that end, Behringer and a number of her teammates played with the offseason SPark hockey club, training indoors and out, and even bringing in some foreign male players as guest instructors.

"They taught me so much, such as the reverse-stick stops and the sweeps we were all doing," she said. "We keep trying new things, and if somebody has a good idea, we're all trying to do it, looking for new stuff."

Behringer, spotting a loose ball nearing the edge of the D, seized the space and the ball and, with the Fallston defense converging, unleashed a shot that found wood.

"There was a time earlier in the game where I didn't go to that loose ball, but I went to it this time," Behringer said.

It was the search for excellence, and not the loss to B-CC or the 15th state championship, that drove the Severna Park team in 2005.

"All we wanted to do was be the best we could be, and to go as far as we could," said said legendary Falcons head coach Lil Shelton, who notched her 443rd win at the school. "If each one of these girls is the best she can be, then the whole team is the best it can be, which we were tonight."

Still, it must be said that Severna Park, which came into the week as the nation's No. 8 team in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10, turned its fury onto its competition in 2005. For the second straight year, the Falcons scored more than 100 goals, and Hayley Rausch got almost a third of them. She ended the 2005 season with 34 goals, amongst the nation's top 20 goal-scorers.

As a sophomore.

"Scoring goals is fun, and (finishing amongst the nation's leading scorers) is good accomplishment," Rausch said. "All I know is that I have a lot to fill next year."

In 31 years, Shelton has never had a player make the senior women's national field hockey team, but knows she has a gem in Rausch, a converted soccer player.

"The key," Shelton says, "is if we can keep her from going to college for lacrosse."

"Oh, I'll be playing both for a while and see which one comes out better," Rausch said.

SPRINGBROOK, AGAIN ON THE RAGGED EDGE, WINS ITS REGION

The last time Silver Spring Springbrook (Md.) went this deep into the postseason, Katie Klass summed up the Blue Devils' entire perilous journey through the state tournament by rescuing a tackled ball and putting it into the goal cage to win the Maryland 4A state final in overtime.

In 2005, the Blue Devils have been on the edge of disaster again. In the regional semifinals against Bethesda Walt Whitman (Md.), Springbrook went down 3-0 after just 20 minutes. But the resilient Devils rallied for a 4-3 overtime win.

In the 4A South Region final, Rockville Magruder (Md.) took Springbrook into overtime before succumbing 2-1. On the play, the Blue Devils' Lauren Kessler finished off a break about five minutes into extra time.

"I like the open field of overtime because there's so much room to move, Kessler tells The Washington Post.

"They were impenetrable and we were fortunate to come away with this win," 2003 United States Coach of the Year Kearney Francis tells The Washington Post. "A lot of this was the hockey gods. We were lucky."

SOUTH RIVER LEAVES IT VERY, VERY LATE

You might forgive Edgewater South River (Md.) head coach Katie Corcoran for deadpanning some of her comments after the Seahawks' improbable 2-1 win over Annapolis Broadneck (Md.) in the state Class 4A East Region final.

After all, the team did win the state championship the previous season.

Which is exactly what happened. Broadneck opened the scoring in the 57th minute when sophomore Karri Ellen Johnson bested the Hawks' Virginia Jorden.

A shade more than two minutes later, junior Abigail McNair got the equalizer. The tie lasted a mere 53 seconds: Stephanie Peterson got the game-winner with 17 seconds showing on the clock.

"We just had to score," Peterson tells The Capital. "It was unreal. I still can't believe it."

ROLAND PARK WINS LATEST WEST NORTHERN PARKWAY DERBY

Once again, the derby between Baltimore Roland Park (Md.) and Baltimore Bryn Mawr (Md.) lived up to its billing as one of the nation's best field hockey rivalries.

In this chapter of the saga between these schools located about a mile apart, Roland Park's Brittany Kalkstein proved the heroine, scoring goals in the 49th and 55th minutes to push past the Mawrtians 2-1.

Debbie Bloodsworth's Reds have been on an unusual rampage to begin the season, starting with a 6-0 throttling of defending Class 2A public-school champion Hereford (Md.). Wins over Towson Notre Dame Prep (Md.) and Annapolis St. Mary's (Md.) led to the derby match, held at Bryn Mawr's intimate bandbox of a field behind the athletic center.

CENTURY WINS ON SNOWBIRD

Leslee Brady, head coach of Severn Archbishop Spalding (Md.), went over as much strategy as she could in a timeout she called in the final two minutes of the Spalding Invitational championship game against Sykesville Century (Md.). Spalding had a free hit in a dangerous position inside the 25, and drew up scenarios for a dramatic game-winning goal.

She wasn't couning on the game-winner being scored in the other half of the field, though. Spalding didn't count on the "snowbird," an indoor field hockey and box lacrosse term defined as a planned quick-strike counterattack against a deep free hit or penalty corner, designed to counter an overcommitted opponent.

Century's Alicia Thompson executed that part of the game plan perfectly, sprinting down the right alley, leading to a Lindsay Gurkovich goal with 34 seconds remaining to give her side a 1-0 win.

"That timeout actually worked to our favor," Century head coach Gayle Taylor tells The Annapolis Capital. "We practice our two-minute plays every day and we work hard to execute in that position. Having that timeout allowed me to remind them of those plays."

Spalding had a number of chances before the timeout, but couldn't put the ball in the cage.

"That's the game of field hockey," Brady told The Capital. "You want to create opportunities and finish on as many as you can, but you can only work on opportunities inside the circle just so much."

DELAWARE

TOWER HILL GETS BY ST. MARK'S IN DIAA TITLE MATCH

It was generally agreed that a non-senior would be the decisive factor when Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) took on Wilmington St. Mark's (Del.) in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association state title game.

And it was also generally agreed that the non-senior was likely to be St. Mark's star Katelyn Falgowski, the prodigious junior who played for the U.S. senior women's national team in a four-nations tournament in Argentina in late October and early November.

So, who would have thought that Tower Hill freshman Mary Hobbs would have scored two first-half goals to give the Hillers a 2-1 win?

Hobbs is a proud producf of the role-modeling that the school provides for its younger players; she told The Wilmington News-Journal that she had followed the progress of the team since she was in first grade and aspired to be on the varsity.

"It's beyond words, I am just so excited," Hobbs said. "It's just so exciting to be here with this team, this varsity team."

Hobbs' second goal was on an untimed penalty corner at the end of the first half, which usually serves as the last memory of the first half, and the first thing a coach seizes upon during the halftime speech.

The Spartans reacted, proving once again that a two-goal lead is the most dangerous in field hockey. Linda Eilola, off a Falgowski feed, scored just 51 seconds after the interval.

The pressure was on. St. Mark's attacked relentlessly throughout the second term, earning 11 penalty corners and one penalty stroke. Falgowski stepped to the stroke mark in the 51st minute and missed the cage to the left.

The game represented more than just the 15th state championship for Tower Hill. It also represented a triumph for head coach Robin Adair. After a loss in the 2004 quarterfinals, Hiller Nation was left aquiver with self-doubt, even to the point when it was not known whether Adair would return as head coach.

But starting in training camp, she had a plan to get back to state championship form.

"This group just jelled together so beautifully," Adair tells The News-Journal. "They get along on and off the field. They were just happy and fun, and they loved it."

And nothing cures anxiety like an 18-0-2 season.

TO BE CONTINUED AT RULLO?

Like two wary panthers staking out territory in a cave, Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) and Camden Caesar Rodney (Del.) played a taut season-ending match, pawing around for any weaknesses whilst being unwilling to expose any of their own.

Both teams came into their late-season match at Caesar Rodney undefeated, and both left the same way after a 70-minute goalless draw.

�It�s like a gut check,� CR coach Debbie Windett tells Delaware State News. �You see where you stand. To play with them knowing the great team they are, it was good for the kids and I was pleased they stepped up to the challenge.�

"It's a good tuneup for the (state) tournament -- two good teams playing each other at a good time," Tower Hill head coach Robin Adair tells The Wilmington News-Journal. "I think it's a great game for both of us to have a week before the tournament stars."

But what will have both sides talking is the play of Caesar Rodney goalkeeper Lauren Redding. She stoned a Mahi Trivellas penalty stroke at the inception of extra time, then did her best Patti Shea impersonation when she dove out to swat a loose ball which, if she had not interposed, might have found the backboard.

�It was amazing to watch her today,� Windett tells Delaware State News. �I�ve seen her in indoor games and summer league games, but I have never seen her play the way she did today. She saved us.�

BRITTINGHAM MAKES UP FOR LOST TIME

The last time Camden Caesar Rodney (Del.) senior attacker Jaimie Brittingham played field hockey against Lewes Cape Henlopen (Del.), she lasted exactly 19 seconds.

That's how long it took for her to get a mouth injury in the state championship final, requiring her to take an ambulance trip to the hospital, making her miss the team's win in the final.

So, when the two teams met in the 2005 regular season, Brittingham wanted a piece of the action. And she got it, scoring in the seventh minute to give the defending state champions a 1-0 win.

Caesar Rodney had won its unexpected championship on the wings of a flying attack led by the likes of Brittingham, Jory Victory, and Casey Howard. But the win over Henlopen was on the backs of an extremely stalwart defense. Goalie Lauren Redding and backs Gillian Masten, Leah Lantzy, and Sam Marano are seniors.

"We all just work so well together," Masten tells The Wilmington News-Journal. "We've always been taught to keep our diagonals, so we're there in case the other one needs help."

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

CATHEDRAL AGONIZES OVER "AGNES"

Jane DeGrenier took the helm of Washington National Cathedral School (D.C.) a few months after the matriculation of all-time great Mina Pell, and since then has found herself chasing the growing domination of Alexandria St. Stephen's/St. Agnes (Va.) in Independent School League (ISL) play

It has gotten to the point where DeGrenier won't even refer to the team as "The Saints" anymore; in the Eagles' camp, the team is referred to as "Agnes."

"Calling them 'saints,'" DeGrenier explains to The Georgetown Current, "elevated them to a place they can't be."

But St. Stephen's/St. Agnes has elevated itself to at least the level of "dynasty." A 4-0 win over National Cathedral sealed the ISL regular season and playoff double with an undefeated campaign against league competition.

"We're trying; it's one of those things," DeGrenier tells The Current. "Before I die, we have to beat them."

FOXCROFT WINS ONE GAME BY PLAYING TWO

It was the biggest win for Middleburg Foxcroft School (Va.) perhaps in the history of its field hockey program. And the thing is, the Foxes had to do it twice.

Back on Sept. 13, Foxcroft topped Washington Georgetown Visitation (D.C.) 1-0 in an Independent School Leagues game.

But a few days later, the umpires realized that something was wrong: the game clocks were set incorrectly. Unlike the Federation mandate of 30-minute halves, the clocks were set for 25-minute halves, which had been the Independent School League (ISL) standard as late as 1998.

In a special meeting of the ISL, a protest by Visitation was upheld.

"There's nothing nefarious about this," Georgetown Visitation Athletic Director Zeff Yusof tells The Washington Post. "No one was trying to pull a fast one on the other school. It was just an honest error that was made on the timekeeping."

So the teams played again on Halloween, and the Foxes spooked Visitation 2-1 in overtime. Joanna French's deflection in the 78th minute ended the match.

"We all sprint off the bench and we were met by all the fans at the goal and we were just hugging," Foxcroft head coach Katie Kantz told The Washington Post.

The win was important not only for the psyche, but for playoff position. The Foxes now enjoy a first-round bye for the ISL tournament.

For last year's notes from this region, click here.