The Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland, which governs sports at about 31 private, mostly religion-affiliated, high schools in the state, met this weekend to crown champions in field hockey.
The association divides girls’ field hockey into three conferences of about eight teams each, A, B, and C. Conferences are true conferences, not classifications of the schools by enrollment.
A Conference: Owings Mills (McDonogh) d. Towson (Notre Dame Prep), 1-0
Whittle (#16) checks NDP junior Sam Nason (Voxitatis)
Both teams played strong defense. Fewer than 10 shots for both teams were sent toward the goal and the score was deadlocked in a scoreless tie at the end of the 60 minutes of regulation play.
Since the score was tied at the end of regulation, play continued in a sudden death fashion, but without a break. Even though IAAM’s rule book calls for a five-minute break before overtime (see page 37), no break occurred in this game.
Just a minute or so after the clock ran out, McDonogh’s sophomore attacker Katelyn Whittle got one by NDP’s goalie after the ball was put into play from the corner. With that, McDonogh won the game and became the A Conference champions, 1-0.
“We were getting tired in the first half,” she said, given that play was in front of McDonogh’s goal much more than NDP’s goal in the first half. “We just fought as hard as we could in the second half. We worked so hard, we pushed so hard. This is all we’ve been playing for this season.”
To get to the final game in the A Conference tournament, McDonogh defeated top-seeded Archbishop Spalding before meeting second-seeded NDP in the final match. At that point, they kept their composure and played the game they knew best.
“We stuck to our game, and played good, fundamental defense,” Whittle said. “We all ran our hearts out. We did everything we could.”
Teams played Friday night, November 4, at Stevenson University’s Mustang Stadium in northwest-suburban Owings Mills.
The McDonogh School field hockey team is coached by Denise Wolf, and Notre Dame Prep by Katrina Ross. During the regular season, both McDonogh and NDP went 13-4, but NDP came into the tournament with a higher seed because they had one more victory in conference match-ups than McDonogh.
B Conference: Bel Air (John Carroll) d. Lutherville (Maryvale), 1-0
Maryvale Prep v. John Carroll (Voxitatis)
Top-seeded Maryvale gave up one goal in the 11th minute, and the remaining 50 minutes of the game were about as even as they come.
“The difference was us, early on, sneaking that ball in where they pushed us back on defense for about seven minutes and we got pressed into that corner,” said Alice Puckett, who’s coaching John Carroll this year for the first time. She coached the team at Fallston High School in Harford County Public Schools to 11 state championships before coming to John Carroll. “But we broke out, and once we went down there we got a quick goal. We just clinged to that 1-0 lead.”
The goal was scored by freshman attacker Ellie Bruggeman, but credit for the rest of the game rests with John Carroll’s senior goalie Emma Gromacki, who found herself facing several corners and stopping Maryvale in their tracks.
The final game was played at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn on Sunday, November 6. Maryvale Prep is coached by Michelle Thaniel.
C Conference: Baltimore (Park School) d. Stevenson (St. Timothy’s School), 3-2
Lowe (#21) works against St Timothy’s Ellie Bowen (Voxitatis)
The even strength of these two teams was shown with the back-and-forth quality of the game. Park struck first in the 12th minute, as sophomore midfielder Sydney Lowe scored. St Timothy answered with a goal just a few minutes later off the stick of senior attacker Edie Tepper. Then Lowe scored again, giving Park a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Then came a corner in front of Park’s net with about a minute and a half remaining in the second half. Junior attacker Anna Chiamulera eventually got the ball and pushed it in to tie the game, which was headed to overtime.
During the first overtime, the ball was down in front of Park’s goal an uncomfortable amount of time, as players started to show signs of fatigue, allowing a solo flight to the goal they were defending a number of times. The second overtime period started the same way. Park’s goalie, senior Eliana Sakin, gets credit for a few key saves, coming out at least twice in the overtime period to confront a one-on-one attack.
And with about three and a half minutes remaining in the second overtime period, there came a corner in front of St Timothy’s net. Park freshman Molly Bloom put the ball into play, Lowe passed it, sophomore Caitlin Price sent it into the air toward the net, and Bloom, who was standing right there, provided just that last bit of misdirection needed to tip it into the goal.
Park junior defender Montana Love said Bloom was a versatile player. “She originally played forward for us at the beginning of the season. Then we had a defender who left to go on a trip, so she went back and turned out to be a fantastic defender. On that one she was playing offense, and she just put it right in.”
The final game was played at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn on Sunday, November 6. St Timothy is coached by Muffie Bliss and Kara Carlin.
