The longest-tenured members of the Broadneck girls lacrosse team loved the finish to the Class 4A state championship game.
Their opponent, Dulaney, scorched their six-goal lead to ashes in a matter of minutes. In the final 30 seconds, Lions junior Anna Jones blazed towards the Bruins net, a potential game-tying, overtime-forcing goal loaded in her stick. A desperate final shot ricocheted off the top bar and time expired.
The three Bruins captains — Lilly Kelley, Mary Moore and Lexi Dupcak — couldn’t have enjoyed the way their high school careers ended more. They experienced every kind of victory in this game now: a one-goal finish against Arundel in 2021, an unrelenting blowout in 2022, and now this.
It felt good to be stressed again.
Broadneck girls lacrosse, already a two-time state champion going into Wednesday night, had established it was capable of greatness. They could be undefeated. They could be bracket-crushers. But by winning a harrowing one-goal final, 9-8, after a truly up-and-down season, the Bruins proved that it was one of the true victors of Maryland lacrosse, under any conditions.
“That’s what we wanted to have happen in the states game,” Dupcak said. “Last year was fun — everyone got to score, everyone got to play — but I like the close games. It’s fun to go out with a one-goal game.”
Over these last three years, Broadneck has written a story few teams could hold even a miniature birthday candle to. Undefeated their first season as a squad composed of mostly sophomores and juniors. Still a force to be feared in 2022, the Bruins only dropped two games all season, both to rival Severna Park, before turning to their Class 4A bracket and taking a wrecking ball to it.
This spring started a little differently.
“There was a little more pressure this year,” Bruins coach Katy Kelley said, “because we hear ‘three-peat’ a lot. That adds a dimension to it. You feel like you’re expected, and that’s not always a great way to feel.”
[ Broadneck holds off late Dulaney rally to win third straight Class 4A state title, 9-8 ]
It’s been years since Broadneck dropped a game in March, but it did, 11-8 to Glenelg on March 28. Then after a couple routs, Broadneck lost again April 12, by a goal to the eventual three-time Class 1A state champion Liberty. After another two wins, the Bruins dropped another one goal-game, this time to the No. 1 team in Delaware, Cape Henlopen, 12-11 on April 15.
The Bruins arrived at their last two weeks of the regular season and rival Severna Park. The Falcons beat them twice: once, by a goal, 8-7 in driving rain. Then, in the county championship, Severna Park dispatched Broadneck much more decisively, 12-6.
That’s how the Bruins entered this year’s playoffs: not an unbeaten juggernaut, but more vulnerable, capable of being played much closer.
“I do think teams across the board are better than they were [these last two years]. At least, I know Dulaney is better, Severna Park,” Katy Kelley said. “And I think we constantly have to keep up. We threw in three new people on each end with a new goalie.”
The three star midfielders in Kelley, Moore and Dupcak have proven just how good they are as three Division I commits, but they had the added benefit of having more experienced athletes surrounding them backing it up. This spring, the trio has had to be the anchors to a younger, less-seasoned group while also still trying to maintain that status quo in games.
“Team dynamics change,” Katy Kelley said, “and it took us a while to figure it out.”
And yet as the playoffs began, Broadneck started rolling to wins with significant margins: 13 goals over Annapolis in the first game, nine over South River in the region final, six over Urbana in the state quarterfinals and 13 over North County in the state semifinals.
But all the while, Broadneck still felt the weight of expectations, Coach Kelley said. Even as it continued to exert its typical dominance, the anxiety rested heavy on their minds. It could still fail.
There are those one-goal losses this spring, for sure. But among their cache of lopsided triumphs, there are one-goal wins, too: 9-8 over Century, 12-11 over Towson and 7-6 over South River.
Varsity Highlights
“I think our hard schedule prepared us for this,” Moore said.
They knew Dulaney and fiercely respected the threat the Lions posed. The Bruins repeated their cautionary prayer to one another in warm-ups. “It’s just another game. It’s just another game.”
The Bruins ran an 8-2 lead more than midway through the second half. And then, Dulaney scored six of the next seven goals.
Lilly Kelley had no reason to worry. For one, she didn’t know how much time was even on the clock — that’s how locked into her faith in her defense she was. Her fellow midfielders were equally zoned. “I was freaked out,” their coach added.
But none of the senior midfielders were. They assured their younger counterparts the same. No, Broadneck girls lacrosse was not infallible. Dulaney proved that, as did Severna Park, and so on.
It had a quality more important: trust in each other. Faith that it could win, and would when it mattered. That’s the legacy the 2023 Bruins left behind.
“We took some losses this year,” Lilly Kelley said. “To come out on top with a state championship, we proved ourselves.”