South River Girls, Focused and Ready, Claim Second Consecutive County Lacrosse Championship

Even a state champion needs to refocus from time to time. After a hiccup in the form of a 15-5 loss to Severna Park on April 30, the Lady Seahawks of South River are focused and ready for what lies ahead.

South River returned to the county’s lacrosse championship game on Monday evening and collected a 9-6 victory over the top-seeded Falcons.

“We knew that if we came out the way we came out last week, we were going to get beat because they’re a great team,” said South River coach Caroline Cochran.

The loss to Severna Park was blemish on an otherwise flawless county record for the Lady Seahawks this season.

“Obviously Severna Park is a great opponent. The first time we played them the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but that was a good indicator and a good lesson,” said South River’s Morgan Carter.

Kathleen Sullivan needed just 23 seconds to put her Seahawks team on the scoreboard.

“I think we were focused and we brought the intensity,” Cochran said about her squad’s performance on Monday.

Severna Park quickly responded with two goals by Hunter Chadwick and Maddy Brady.

The normally potent attack of Severna Park would then go cold until the end of the first half, falling behind 8-3 with 2:26 left before intermission.

“It’s good to see what happens when we face some adversity,” Severna Park coach Kaitlyn Hines said. “We’re not used to being down. We’re not used to losing.”

The Lady Falcons would pull the game to within three goals, at 8-5, after a goal from Julia Putzi and direct run and score through the heart of the South River defense by Alex Miller.

Severna Park took momentum into halftime but were unable to carry back out on the field for the second half.

“The big thing for our second half is focus,” Cochran said. “They’re a great team. You can’t take a minute off against a great team. We really did come out and make sure that momentum shift wasn’t going to affect us.”

By halftime Sullivan and Carter had each registered a hat trick for the Lady Seahawks.

“We’ve been ready for the whole season,” said Sullivan, who added one assist in the game. “We’ve just been waiting for this moment to come again.”

Second half action saw Miller score once more for South River only to be equaled by Tommi Bresnahan at the 17:31 mark.

Defenses locked in and the remainder of the game slowed down until time expired giving the Lady Seahawks their second consecutive county championship.

Despite the loss, coach Hines was pleased with her squad’s defensive efforts noting Rachel Spilker and Kate Bray played well to keep the South River attack in check.

“It’s a positive to come away with something to work on and move forward with,” Hines said.

Both teams will now enter the MPSSAA playoffs. Severna Park will play the winner of the North County and Glen Burnie game in the 4A East region section 1 semifinals.

“We just reset and move forward to playoffs,” said Hines.

South River will wait for North Point or Annapolis to advance from the 4A East region section 2 semifinals.

“Every game we have to show up to play no matter who we’re playing and really put two halves together,” Carter said. “Play a full [half] to make sure that we get to our end goal, which is a state championship. We want to get back and we want to win.”