All season Chapelgate has fought through some tight games and on Thursday, in the IAAM C semifinals at St. Timothy's it was no different. Unfortunately for the Yellowjackets they couldn't get on the winning end this time around and fell, 9-8.
"It's actually fun (but) it's the toughest loss ever, especially for my seniors," said first-year Chapelgate coach Ualani Schmitt. "We wanted another chance at Annapolis Area, but St. Tim's they got the first one and we won the second one. We held the ball for 13 minutes, 15 seconds (and) they held it the first time on their field, so I knew it was going to be a tight game – it's St. Tim's it always is. So that was hard, I knew it was going to come down to who had that last shot and who was going to play harder defense."
The Yellowjackets jumped out to a 5-1 advantage through the first 13 minutes of the game. They did a great job on the circle in the first half, winning 7-of-13 draw controls, which helped dominate possession time in the first 25 minutes.
Jenna Winand was the catalyst for Chapelgate throughout the game and the junior started off hot, netting three of the Yellowjackets six goals of the half.
Bailey Creamer put an end to Chapelgate's 4-0 run and kicked started a St. Tim's 3-0 surge in the process in the final seven minutes, which got her team back within one. But Winand added one more goal before the break, netting her score with 26 seconds to spare and extending the Yellowjackets lead, 6-4 at halftime.
"The first time we played them here, we were down 5-1 and came back and won by one. In our game there we were up by three or four and then they won by one, so we were preparing them all along that no deficit and no lead was going to win a game," said St. Tim's co-coach Kara Karlin. "So they were in it to win it and they knew it didn't matter, five up, five down, it was anyone's game. We were even with our opponent."
St. Tim's won the second-half opening draw and quickly added a goal from Creamer less than a minute in. Creamer got back on the line and won the ensuing draw, which was followed with St. Tim's second consecutive score one minute later. This time it was Isabel Klose who put away the goal, tying the game up at 6-all with 23 minutes left.
"We really tried to strategize at halftime about how to stack the draws so that if one of the Chapelgate players went in we would have a back up," explained St. Tim's co-coach Marjorie Bliss. "Our center (Creamer) was really trying to change it up a bit too so that our whole unit on the circle would be successful."
The Yellowjackets didn't let up and didn't allow St. Tim's to take the lead until the last few minutes. Winand gave Chapelgate back the cushion at the 22:26-mark, making the score 7-6, but St. Tim's Kaite Harvey tied it up a seven about two minutes later. With 18 minutes on the clock, Winand buried another shot, finishing off a feed from Rachel Del Carmen, putting the Yellowjackets back up, 8-7. But that was the last time Chapelgate found the back of the net.
Edie Tepper snuck her shot past Chapelgate goalie Madison Boyd on a free position and tied the score once again at 8-all with 17 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.
The score remained tied for the following 11-plus minutes as both Boyd and St. Tim's goalie Olivia Risier came up with big stops for their teams. Boyd picked up two of her nine saves in the stretch, while Risier totaled three saves in the same span.
"First year goalie, never played in there before," said Schmitt of Boyd. "She tries to step up and stay in it mentally and she's never played before, so it was like this quick boot camp with her training and she just came out, I couldn't of asked for a better goalie. She's incredible."
While in their offensive zone the Yellowjackets got called for an offensive foul, resulting in a turnover, which St. Tim's capitalized on with the eventual go-ahead goal. After the foul, St. Tim's settled into its offense on the other end, leading to a goal from Jen Holland who put away the pass from Harvey with 8:10 to play, giving her team the first lead of the game.
"My gosh, you know what, they've been working really hard," Bliss said. "We really focused on the crease play and it took us a little bit of time to get our feet underneath us, but once we did it really just generated rhythm. It allowed our goalie to make some better saves and some great saves, came out with some really nice transition and we were just really proud of our attack for taking some quality shots in the second half."
St. Tim's won the ensuing draw and held the ball on the offensive end to eat some clock. Two minutes went by before Alia Campbell picked off a pass and took the ball the other way for the Yellowjackets. Chapelgate stayed patient offensively, earning a free position on the far left has with 3:35 remaining. However, it couldn't compete the extra pass near the crease, turning the ball over to St. Tim's who again held and wasted more precious time.
"I think you can see what a team effort this was and how much everybody wanted it from one side of the field to the other side of the field," Karlin said. "From the goalie to our lowest attacker, they knew not to go to goal in the end, they knew it was about possession. My defense knew it was about getting it back and taking pride in the ball and not about taking a goal in there, so I think it was just a composed finish, which is what we needed."
St. Tim's called a timeout with three minutes to play and out of it, held for another two minutes before Campbell came up with another turnover. With less than two minutes left, Winand got a good look at the cage but Risier came up with another huge save to preserve the one-goal game.
"Our goalie really stepped it up in those last 18 minutes," Karlin added. "She really shined. We had that timeout, we kind of looked at her like shake it off, start over and get a killer 18 minutes, which is what we needed."
Chapelgate worked hard on the re-defend and earned the ball back after a foul on St. Tim's in the midfield. But St. Tim's remained solid defensively and with time expiring, the Yellowjackets were forced to heave a pass toward the eight-meter, which was picked off by Harvery, preserving the one-point win.
"It also just showed a lot of heart and hustle, because you know, they had some good caused turnovers, we made some mistakes, but we knew that we wanted this really badly," Bliss said. "So as a team, we wanted to make sure that we got this so we worked hard for it."
Creamer led St. Tim's with four goals, followed by Tepper who totaled two goals and one assist.
Winand finished with six goals while Del Carmen and Sydney Carnock registered one goal and one assist each.
"Jenna Winand is just an incredible leader. She plays with her heart on her sleeve and just plays hard. I couldn't of asked for anything better," Schmitt said. "Alia Campbell did amazing and the effort – some of our shots just weren't falling for us, but other than that man, I'm just proud of all of them, it's tough, just tough."
Chapelgate ended a successful season, showing tremendous growth from its first game to its loss to St. Tim's Thursday. The Yellowjackets are looking at a successful year next season with the majority of their players back. They end 2016 with an 8-8 overall record.
"Just the growth, we improved overall. We had to fight our way out of the first round and we did. Then went to Beth Tfiloh and won 17-7, which is amazing. We were really excited, and then we came in today and we've had people out every single game so I'm just so proud of them. Coming in my first year, I couldn't of asked for a better team. Work ethic is just incredible," Schmitt added. "We have so many juniors on this team. It's junior heavy. We have four seniors and everyone else is a junior. I'm excited because they were really senior heavy last year, so we were rebuilding this year and it's just cool to see that everybody played a whole game. That was our goal to play a whole game from start to finish, so I think we did that. We made a couple mistakes that got us, but that's how it goes."
St. Timothy's 9, Chapelgate 8 (Thursday, May 12) (IAAM C semifinals)
Goals: ST – B. Creamer 4, Tepper 2, Holland 1, Harvey 1, Klose 1; C – Winand 6, Del Carmen 1, Carnock 1.
Assists: ST – Chimulera 1, Holland 1, Tepper 1; C – Del Carmen 1, Carnock 1.
Saves: ST – Risier 3; C – Boyd 9.
Halftime: 6-4 Chapelgate.
Other scores:
Glenelg Country 17, Park 9 (Thursday, May 12) (IAAM B Semifinals)
It was a back-and-forth first half between the Dragons and Bruins Thursday during the IAAM B semifinals. But Glenelg Country finished strong and earned the eight-point win to advance to the IAAM B finals for a rematch of last year's title game against Mercy.
Park opened up with the game's first goal, with the Dragons answering with back-to-back scores to give them their first lead of the contest with 16 minutes left in the first half. The Bruins took back the advantage two goals later, but Glenelg Country countered with a 3-0 run to gain the 5-3 lead. Park knotted up the score one last time at 5-all, but the Dragons buried a shot before the halftime whistle, giving them the one-point lead at the break. They carried that momentum into the second half, rattling off six more goals before the Bruins answered more than midway through. Glenelg Country rode the large cushion to the eventual 17-9 win.
Alyssa Arnold finished a prolific afternoon with five goals and five assists in the outing. Bobbie Haney (three goals, one assist), Julia Sheehan (three goals, one assist), Hannah Glaros (two goals) and Alli Bateman (one goal, two assists) followed offensively. Kelly Layton finished with six saves in net, while Avery Dyer registered eight stops in the second half of action.
The Dragons faced the Magic twice this season and got the best of them on both occasions. On March 21, Glenelg Country hosted and pulled away with the 17-10 victory and nearly one month later, the Dragons edged the Magic, 10-9 on their home turf.
The IAAM B final is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Archbishop Spalding High School.
Goals: GCS – Arnold 5, Haney 3, Sheehan 3, Glaros 2, O'Leary 1, Ahearn 1, Rushe 1, Bateman 1; P – Pais 3, Lowe 3, Olschansky 1, Genrh 1, Boston 1.
Assists: GCS –Arnold 5, Bateman 2, Sheehan 1, Haney 1, Ahearn 1; P – Lowe 2, Wolf 1.
Saves: GCS – Layton 6, Dyer 8; P – Lyght 9.
Halftime: 6-5 GCS.
Glenelg Country 21, Seton Keough 5 (Tuesday, May 10) (IAAM B Quarterfinals)
Goals: GCS – Haney 4, Rushe 3, Arnold 3, Rich 3, Sheehan 2, Bateman 1, O'Leary 1, Hooper 1, Ahearn 1, Olaniyan 1, Toomer 1; SK – Holloway 3, Altenburg 1, Weber 1.
Assists: GCS – Bateman 5, Arnold 3, Haney 2, Sheehan 1, Rushe 1, Glaros 1, O'Leary 1; SK – Amah 1.
Saves: GCS – Layton 3, Dyer 3; SK – Woodward 5.
Halftime: 16-0 GCS.
Chapelgate 17, Beth Tfiloh 7 (Tuesday, May 10) (IAAM C Quarterfinals)