Within hours of helping her teammates finish an unbeaten season with a conference championship win last month, one of the stars of the McDonogh girls lacrosse team was arrested at a party in Howard County. One of the team's former stars who now plays in college was also arrested.
According to police, Taylor Virden of Ellicott City and Molly Fernandez of Baltimore were charged with obstructing and hindering in an arrest, failure to obey orders, and resisting and interfering in an arrest. Police said they were also among 13 who were cited for underage drinking at the May 15 party.
Police said they found Virden, 18, and Fernandez, 19, hiding under a bed in a house in Columbia where the party was held. Police said they had to take apart the frame of the bed after Virden and Fernandez ignored orders to come out and remained under the bed after police shot pepper spray into an opening.
It might have been a party to celebrate the team's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship earlier in the day against Notre Dame Prep, as well as to celebrate Fernandez's birthday. Fernandez, who now plays at Penn State, turned 19 that day. The party was held at the home of another former McDonogh star athlete, Ali Brennan.
Virden was the top defender and player on a team that finished 20-0 and won its second straight conference title. An All-Metro player as a junior, Virden was recently named to the Under Armour All-American Classic South team and accepted a scholarship to play at Duke.
Fernandez had recently finished her freshman year at Penn State, where she was the team's second-leading point producer. In her last game of the season, Fernandez scored four goals in a loss to then-No. 2 ranked Northwestern.
Brennan, a soccer goalkeeper at the University of Miami who had also played lacrosse and basketball at McDonogh before graduating last year, was among those cited for underage drinking. Police said that Brennan's parents were not home at the time.
According to charging documents, police were called to a residence in the 8500 block of Woodstaff Way at around 11:30p.m., after receiving complaints from neighbors for excessive noise.
When police arrived, two people who were in the driveway of the house ran back into the house where the party was being held, yelling, "The cops are here." A police spokeswoman said that a half-empty tequila bottle was thrown through an open second-floor window, narrowly missing an officer's head.
"At that point, because of the large number of people in and around the house, more officers were called," Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.
"Our primary concern is for the safety of the kids. As they're running outside, are they getting into cars [after drinking] and driving away?"
One of the officers went to the back of the house, where he saw a number of people either running from the area or into the residence. Police said that the back deck was littered with open cans of beer and alcohol and one of the officers could see people in the house going into closets to hide or running into rooms and closing doors.
When there was no response from anyone in the house to open the front door, two officers entered through an unlocked basement door, police said.
Many of those who were hiding in closets or rooms came out at the officers' orders, but police said Virden and Fernandez did not.
The arrest came several hours after McDonogh's 17-8 win over Notre Dame Prep in Finksburg, a game in which Virden limited Covie Stanwick, the Blazers' top scorer, to a couple of goals.
Penn State officials did not return calls about Fernandez.
When reached at her office, McDonogh athletic director Mickey Deegan said, "I have no comment."
McDonogh girls lacrosse coach Chris Robinson did not return calls or an e-mail about Virden.
In an e-mail sent to The Baltimore Sun, school spokeswoman Lynn McKain wrote: "McDonogh expects students to obey school rules and the law, and we impose consequences when they don't. While we don't comment on disciplinary cases, we count on our students to make good decisions in school and out."
Virden and Fernandez are scheduled to appear in Howard County District Court on Aug. 6.
Neither Virden nor Fernandez could be reached for comment.
Reporter Katherine Dunn contributed to this story