Glenelg claims county championship with convincing win over Marriotts Ridge | Howard County girls lacrosse roundup

May 20—Even with all the lopsided scores so far this spring for a Glenelg team that came into Wednesday's showdown with Marriotts Ridge having outscored its opposition 57-7, the Gladiators felt like squaring off against the rival Mustangs was finally their chance to make a statement.

It turned out to be a loud one.

Breaking open a tight game with seven straight goals in a nine-minute span late in the first half, Glenelg (4-0) built a comfortable lead and never looked back on the way to an 18-6 victory that secures the program sole possession of this year's county championship. It's the third county title in the last four seasons for the Gladiators, who bring home the trophy after Marriotts Ridge won the league championship in 2019.

"Honestly, we've been preparing all season and using all our previous games to get ready for this and for states later. We knew we were a good team, but no one else is going to recognize that until we prove it against another good team like Ridge," said sophomore Isa Torres. "Individually, and as a team, today was about proving that we belong out here as the best team in the county this year."

With the announcement on Wednesday that there will be state playoffs this year, the regular season schedule for Howard County lacrosse was adjusted to eliminate the county championship tournament. Instead, it was determined that the team with the best record in Division A through the first five games — one matchup against each team in the division — would be crowned as champions.

Torres certainly played a large part in proving that the Gladiators deserved to stand alone at the top of the league this spring, as she scored four goals and secured seven draw controls. As a team, Glenelg dominated the draw all evening — securing 20 of 26. Torres and junior Maura Murphy (three goals, one assist and five draw controls) did most of the heavy lifting in terms of consistently winning possession.

"[Maura and I] grew up together learning it and we do something similar and it's like everything for us," Torres said. "I know when I lose the draw I take it personally, so we put a lot of focus on that. I love that feeling of having the ball and controlling the first part of the offense."

Overall, Glenelg had nine players score at least one goal. Emma Kennedy (three goals and one assist), Chloe Birckhead (two goals) and Lauren LaPointe (two goals and three assists) joined Murphy and Torres with multiple scores.

When the Gladiators were at their best late in the latter portion of the opening half, five different players scored and Glenelg did the majority of its damage in transition to turn a 5-3 advantage into a comfortable 12-3 cushion.

"We are looking to play fast and push the entire game. Now sometimes that leads to playing panicky, which we did a little bit those first few minutes. But instead of dialing them back, we stayed with that green light," Glenelg coach Alex Pagnotta said. "We want to get the ball and go. Late in the first half you saw us really start to hit on our motions off the fast break and it changed the entire momentum of the game."

Marriotts Ridge (3-1) did look strong early on, scoring the game's first goal just over three minutes in as Annika Huelskamp found the net. Then, after the Gladiators went on a small run to grab the lead, Marriotts Ridge hung close thanks to additional scores from Lauren Fisher and Caroline Albert.

But as the game wore on, Glenelg's advantage on the draw proved to be too much.

"At the end of the day, we had moments of good things. But those mistakes that we made were magnified because we were going up against a really good team," Marriotts Ridge coach Amanda Brady said. "The draw was big. ... I don't think we won one until 15 or 16 minutes into the game ... and that put a lot of pressure on our defense."

Marriotts Ridge did score two straight to close the first half and cut its deficit to 12-5 at intermission. However, Glenelg buckled down defensively after that to allow just one goal in the second half — getting some huge stops from goalie Jocelyn Torres (12 saves) — and create a running clock with just over 13 minutes left.

"We have been playing at a very high level in practice, holding ourselves to very high expectations, and they have been carrying that right over to the field," Pagnotta said. "I think those hard practices are what get us ready to perform in games like this and we were definitely ready to go today."

On the other side, Brady said the game was a good learning experience for her team. Slotted into different classifications for the first time in several years for the state playoffs, Glenelg (2A) and Marriotts Ridge (3A) will not face one another again this season.

"Any time you play a really good team that is fast and strong, it puts you in position to have to make adjustments, and I think this game against Glenelg will force us to reflect on the things that we need to get better at," Brady said. "We now have a chance to fix some of those things and try and prepare for playoffs."

Glenelg 18, Marriotts Ridge 6

Goals: G — Torres 4, Kennedy 3, Murphy 3, Birckhead 2, LaPointe 2, Allnutt 1, Cipolla 1, Baehr 1, Henson 1; MR — Fisher 2, Bender 1, Clevenger 1, Huelskamp 1, Albert 1.

Assists: G — Lapointe 3, Allnutt 3, Metz 3, Krohn 2, Torres 1, Cipolla 1, Kennedy 1; MR — Merrill 1, Clevenger 1.

Saves: G — Torres 12; MR — Hejeebu 11.

Halftime: 12-5, G.

OTHER GIRLS LACROSSE SCORES:

Centennial 12, Howard 10

The Eagles (2-3) snapped a two-game losing skid by edging the Lions (1-4), getting four goals apiece from Abby Cudzilo and Charlotte Pilcher to lead the offense. Goalie Ava Welsh anchored the defense with 11 saves.

Sam Brothers and Lily Hume each scored three goals to lead Howard in the loss.

Goals: C — Cudzilo 4, Pilcher 4, Lagera 2, Kelly 1, Roybal 1; Ho — Brothers 3, Hume 3, Rozgonyi 2, Wiechert 1, Anthony 1.

Assists: C — Cudzilo 2, Lagera 2, Kelly 1, LasCasas 1; Ho — Somers 1, Wiechert 1.

Saves: C — Welsh 11; Ho — Martone 4.

Atholton 15, Long Reach 1

Remaining the only undefeated team in Division B, the Raiders (4-0) put together another complete effort on both ends of the field to beat the visiting Lightning (0-5). Molly Flynn (4 goals), Kendall Dean (3 goals, 2 assists) and Hannah McGrath (3 goals, assist) all had huge efforts offensively, while Kyleigh Eaton (6 saves) and Autumn Wenstrom (1 save) again combined for a dominant effort in goal.

Goals: A — Flynn 4, Dean 3, McGrath 3, Gravely-Smith 2, McManus 2, Shoemaker 1; LR — Pompei 1.

Assists: A — Dean 2, McManus 1, Kelley 1, McGrath 1.

Saves: A — Eaton 6, Wenstrom 1; LR — Young 15.

Halftime: 10-1 A.

Oakland Mills 9, Wilde Lake 8 3OT

Using a huge second half comeback, the Scorpions (3-2) moved above .500 on the season by outlasting the visiting Wildecats in triple overtime. Wilde Lake led 6-1 at the half and 8-2 after intermission before Oakland Mills regrouped to tie the game at 8-8 by the end of regulation.

Sara Novak (4 goals, assist) and Kaity Browne (3 goals) led the offense, while Katie Oliver made seven saves in goal for Oakland Mills. It was Browne who delivered the game-winning goal.

Cassie Montgomery (3 goals, 5 draw control, 2 caused turnovers, 3 ground balls) and Zohra Salehi (2 goals, 2 ground balls) were among the leaders for Wilde Lake in the loss.

Goals: OM — S. Novak 4, K. Browne 3, Y. Megdiche 2; WL — C. Montgomery 3, Zo. Salehi 2, S. Sattar 1, J. Pittman 1, L. Carlesi 1.

Assists: OM — Novak 1, L. Selva 1; WL — K. Hunter 1, L. Carlesi 1, S. Sattar 1.

Saves: OM — K. Oliver 7; WL — E. Sweitzer 6.

Halftime: 6-1 WL.

Mt. Hebron 19, River Hill 11

The Vikings (3-2) won their third straight game, this time defeating the Hawks (0-3) behind an offensive effort that saw eight different players score a goal. Audrey Harrington (5 goals, 2 assists), Jessie Barke (3 goals, assist), Kate Webb (3 goals, assists), Ashley Unkenholz (3 goals) and Olivia Hoover (2 goals, 4 assists) paced the scoring for Mt. Hebron.

Molly Maloney (4 goals, assist), Ella Ferrer (2 goals) and Maddie Kim (2 goals) all scored multiple times for River Hill in the loss.

Goals: MH — Harrington 5, Barke 3, Unkenholz 3, Webb 3, Hoover 2, Kampert 1, Mullaney 1, Pak 1; RH — Maloney 4, Ferrer 2, Kim 2, Sharp 2, Schwab 1.

Assists: MH — Hoover 4, Harrington 2, Barke 1, Pak 1, Webb 1; RH — Vasilios 3, Ferrer 1, Maloney 1, Stoutenborough 1.

Saves: MH — Lloyd 4, Connell 4; RH — N/A.

Halftime: 13-5 MH.

Hammond at Reservoir, PPD (to May 20)

SOFTBALL

Centennial 15, Atholton 6

The Eagles (1-5) had scored just five runs in their first five games, but exploded for five runs in the first two innings against the Raiders (0-6) and kept that momentum going the rest of the way en route to the team's first win of the season.

Eagles' freshman Nicole Cavey had four singles at the plate and then came on in relief at pitcher to close with two strikeouts in two innings. Junior Madison Ceglia got things going as the starting pitcher, striking out seven through five. Other multi-hit games for Centennial came from junior Allison Keen (single, triple), junior Gussy Ruckdeschel (single, triple) and senior Delanie Tucker (single, double).

For Atholton, Micah Howell (2-4, triple) and Lydia Yerger (2-4, double) were among the offensive leaders. Kyra Holtje had a standout defensive game and also stole four bases, while Kate Saylor pitched well with four strikeouts.

.. 123 456 7 R-H-E

A 020 400 0 6-4-4

C 230 262 0 15-11-2