Coaching a seemingly unbeatable team posed several challenges this spring for McDonogh coach Chris Robinson, who not only had to mold a young team but also had to help the youngsters handle the pressure when every opponent had its date with the Eagles circled in red on the calendar.
It all came together in a 22-0 season that culminated in No. 1 McDonogh running its national-record girls lacrosse winning streak to 155 with an eighth straight Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship.
"I think our kids take pride in the fact that they're in something special, something unique that not many other people can ever take part in and that's really brought us a close sense of community and bonding," said Robinson, in his 11th season with the Eagles.
While some in the local lacrosse community thought the streak might end this spring, Robinson may have built his best team ever. He had leadership in senior captains Savannah Buchanan, Brindi Griffin, Sarah Dohler and Gabbe Cadoux, but he also had a lot of young players thrown into the heat of competition right away.
The Eagles won all but one game by at least five goals and won 15 by 10 or more. Only one team mounted a major threat to the streak — Century which led McDonogh by four with nine minutes left before the Eagles rebounded to pull out a 12-11 overtime win. After that scare, the Eagles cruised through the playoffs by an average margin of 11.3 goals. They scored the first six goals against No. 4 Roland Park in the A Conference final and went on to win 15-7.
With one of the toughest schedules in the country, McDonogh also defeated some of the top public school teams in Baltimore — then-No. 2 Marriotts Ridge, 13-8, and then-No. 4 Mount Hebron, 15-4 — as well as two Washington, D.C.-area powers — Good Counsel, 16-5, and Bishop Ireton, 18-8. Good Counsel was ranked No. 4 in USA Today's Super 25 at the time.
"Our seniors took the whole level of game to another place," Robinson said, "and then we got contributions from younger kids that we just weren't sure how they were going to do and they came through with flying colors. And the freshmen and sophomores who were new to the team came in and from the first minute, played at a high level, almost didn't realize what they were playing in — were oblivious to it and never felt the pressure."
Robinson gave a lot of credit to his assistant coaches, his brother Scott Robinson, Nancy Love and Katie Love.
McDonogh, ranked No. 1 in every national poll, has gone 212-10 since Robinson took over. Before coaching the Eagles, he coached Mount Hebron to five state championships between 1997 and 2001. He has a career record of 319-18-1 in 17 years with nine national No. 1 teams. He has been Coach of the Year twice before, once at McDonogh and once at Mount Hebron.
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