The South River field hockey team repeatedly pushed into Broadneck's circle, but the Seahawks couldn't put the ball into the cage.
That changed early in the second half when Heather Homick scored on a rebound with 22:29 left in the game, as No. 2 South River pull edout a 1-0 victory over No. 5 Broadneck in an Anne Arundel County game Thursday night.
The game was even in the early minutes, but host South River (8-1, 5-1) slowly began to put more pressure on Broadneck (7-2, 4-2) and take over. As time went on, the Seahawks began to find more good chances.
"We knew we had to keep the pressure on," said South River coach Katie Corcoran. "But our forwards did a good job of keeping the pressure on. We kept pushing."
All of that work finally paid off in one stretch. The Seahawks got two quick shots on goal. Broadneck's Jenna Tribull (five saves) stopped both. But the rebound from the second shot bounced over to Homick, who fired the ball into the cage.
"I just saw the ball and saw the opening … and it went right through," Homick said. "We just kept the ball down in their circle [a lot] and didn't give up."
The Seahawks came close a few other times but couldn't score. Courtney Thompson got a good shot on goal in the first half, but Tribull stopped it. Jennie Milligan broke through the defense a few minutes after Homick's goal, but she couldn't get off a shot.
South River goalie Shannon Flanagan finished with four saves, and the defense did a good job of clearing the ball out of the circle and not giving the Bruins much time to do anything.
The defeat capped a frustrating week for Broadneck, which lost to No. 1 Severna Park on Monday. That loss came with just 1:28 left in double overtime — after the Bruins had rallied from a 2-0 halftime deficit.
In addition, Broadneck hadn't allowed a goal or been behind in a game all season before that game.
Broadneck coach Jen Parks said she didn't think her team played with the necessary fire against the Seahawks.
"We just didn't have a spark," she said. "It wasn't there. I think we were ready. We just didn't play our game."