Severna Park's defending Class 4A-3A state championship girls lacrosse team needed a little time to figure things out early in the season with a new coach and a young roster.
Now, after a 1-2 start, the Falcons seem to be hitting their stride.
Both of the Falcons' losses were to Top 15 teams and, Thursday, they earned their first win over a ranked team as Eva Klaus had seven goals and an assist to power them past No. 12 C. Milton Wright, 11-8, at the Anne Arundel Community College Tournament.
"States is definitely the goal again," said Klaus, a junior midfielder. "That's what we have our sights set on every year and I think we're definitely on that route. We just have to keep up the intensity and finish out the season strong."
Klaus did her share, breaking the only tie of the game with three straight goals for a 4-1 lead with 13:52 left in the first half.
After a nine-minute scoring drought that featured strong play from both goalies — Severna Park's Ellie Harmeyer and C. Milton Wright's Katelyn Miller, who finished with 10 saves each — the Mustangs (3-2) pulled within one. Kendall Little fed Haley Matthai and Jordan Landsman fed Lauren O'Mara to pull within 4-3 with 4:08 left in the half.
After Annie Echeverria boosted the Falcons' edge to 5-3, the Mustangs had several chances to cut into the lead, but Harmeyer saved two shots and another hit the pipe in the final three minutes.
Klaus scored on a free position to open the second half, sparking a 4-1 run. She added three more goals and Lauren DuVall finished off the spurt to put the Falcons up 9-4 with 17:41 to go.
"We just played smarter ball," Klaus said of the second half. "In the first half I think it was more rushed and we kind of collected ourselves in the second half and said, 'OK, this is what we have to do,' and came up with a game plan and we executed it."
The Mustangs, whose only other loss was to No. 8 Manchester Valley, got three goals each from O'Mara and Matthai.
Queen Anne's 13, No. 5 Archbishop Spalding 11: Also at the AACC Tournament, the Cavaliers had an early lead, but they could not stop Queen Anne's attacker Kallie German, who scored seven goals and had two assists.
The Cavaliers (3-4) led 7-3 with 3:35 to go in the first half, but the Lions, who have been to the state semifinals seven times in the past eight years and reached the Class 3A-2A title game two years ago, rallied with three goals to finish the half.
Spalding senior Emily Cooper stopped the run, scoring one of her five goals a little over five minutes into the second half to increase the lead to 8-6, but the Lions (2-0) scored six straight times and held the Cavaliers without a goal for more than 14 minutes.
German had four goals and an assist in the run that gave the Lions a 12-8 lead with 8:41 left. The Cavaliers scored three of the final four goals but could not overcome the scoring drought.
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Severna Park 11, 12C. Milton Wright 8
Goals: CMW—L.O'Mara 3, Matthai 3, J.O'Mara, Landsman; SP—Klaus 7, DuVall 2, Gun, Echeverria.
Assists: CMW: L.O'Mara, Landsman, Little; SP—Ross. Saves: CMW—Miller 10; SP—Harmeyer 10. Half: SP, 5-3.
Queen Anne's 13, 5Archbishop Spalding 11
Goals: QA—German 7, Scott 2, T.Feaga, Blick, Folker, Draper; AS—Cooper 5, Stump 3, Phillips, Brown, Brisolari. Assists: QA—German 2, Scott 2, Draper; AS—Phillips. Saves: QA—Baker 6; AS—Laveck 6. Half: AS, 7-6.