During a scoreless tie, when Catonsville High coach Carrie Mckenna-Wilson asked her team at halftime who would score the first goal, senior midfielder Ashley Bates jokingly raised her hand.
Although Bates is a talented midfielder with multiple skills, her role for the Comets has been to make smooth transitions to the offense and watch the attack score the goals.
She hadn't scored all season, but that changed against Franklin on Wednesday night when she deposited a ball that deflected off Indian goalie Ally Anderson with 4:32 elapsed in the second half.
It was the first goal in a 3-0 victory for the Comets (6-4).
"I hadn't scored yet this season so I was so excited," Bates said.
The opportunity arose thanks to the hard work of midfielder Molly Buettner in the corner.
She stole the ball from a defender and fed Allison Campbell along the end line.
Campbell's cross deflected off Anderson to Bates and she scored from about five yards out.
"She is one of our best players, but I would consider her an unsung hero because she works the ball to Brittany [Stevens] and doesn't get a whole lot of credit, but she's so important for our team," Mckenna-Wilson said.
Catonsville had beaten Franklin 10-2 in a game on Sept. 13, so anxiety mounted after a scoreless first half.
"There was a little frustration because we know that we can shoot and we know that we can score, but we just couldn't put it in, but we knew we could do it so we weren't worried, we were like confident," Bates said.
That confidence rose less than two minutes after Bates' goal when senior Ashlyn Cunningham scored off an assist from Kelsey Jones.
"She [Cunningham] is always in the right place at the right time," said Mckenna-Wilson, noting she scored three goals in a 7-0 win over Sparrows Point on Sept. 30.
The final Catonsville goal came from junior Grace Pound.
Brittany Stevens passed to Sydney Keagle and she fed Pound.
Although Pound is a reserve she can finish, as she proved scoring two goals against Sparrows Point.
"She's my good utility, go out there and score kind of girl," Mckenna-Wilson said. "She's a good front line person and she's a junior, so I could see her being an important player next year."
The most important player for Franklin was goalie Anderson, who was credited with 27 saves.
"Today was amazing," Franklin coach Sammie Jo Grove said. "She is a senior and she is awesome."
"Their goalie was so good," Mckenna-Wilson added. "She is like an all-star goalie."
Anderson also had some help from her defenders.
In the first half, a shot by Cunningham got past Anderson, but Franklin's Octavia Parker cleared it off the end line.
In the second half, another Cunningham shot that squirted past Anderson, was cleared in front of the end line by Caroline McManus.
"Our defense did well and our wings were getting back for the outlet passes," Grove said.
Mckenna-Wilson also praised her defense of seniors Madi Jones and Molly Miller and junior Zoey Waddell.
"My defense is really good," Mckenna-Wilson said. "They work really good together on calling out the best angles, so when someone is travelling, the defender with the best angle calls off and they can switch their positions really easily."
Goalie Maddie Manalansan (three saves) was barely tested, but she came up big on her biggest save of the night.
With the Comets leading 2-0, Suzanne Luthy had a breakaway and Manalansan charged out of the cage and stopped the shot with a double-leg stack in which she dove sideways with her legs together.
I'm proud of my goalie for making a calculated double stack. That was great," Mckenna-Wilson said. "One on one, she went out and did it properly."
But, the Comet coach knows, with challenging games on the horizon against Dulaney (Oct. 10), Towson (Oct. 14) and Hereford (Oct. 19), the offense has to be sharp as it was in five victories over its five previous county foes.
Catonsville, winners of six of its last seven, with the only blemish being a 3-2 loss to Mount de Sales, outscored Franklin (twice), Sparrows Point, Perry Hall and Loch Raven by a 30-3 margin.
That may explain why Mckenna-Wilson was confident when she asked who would score the first goal at halftime.
"I knew once we scored, we would score more, but getting that first one was really tough today," she said.