Falcons Field Hockey Fires Into Semifinals

Severna Park’s field hockey team has been working all season to get back to the state tournament, in hopes of a better outcome.

In their quarterfinal appearance on Thursday, they didn’t disappoint.

Behind goals from five players and a relentless transition game, the Falcons overwhelmed Reservoir, dominating from start to finish in a 5-0 victory that could have been more.

Grace Moran opened the scoring nine minutes into the game, and the Falcons continually applied pressure from there. They racked up 21 corners in the game and added another goal in the second quarter from defender Hannah Pope and three more in the third, from Ava Zimmerman, Emma Weber and Sydney Day.

Those three third-quarter goals came five minutes apart and broke what was left of the Gators’ resistance.

“We could feel the confidence in that third quarter, because things really started clicking,” said Zimmerman, one of 10 seniors who suited up on their home field for the final time. “It’s sad, because it’s the last one on this field, but it’s a good one to go out on.”

The Falcons capitalized on their ability to rack up corners, though it took them a while to start cashing those into goals. Once they figured it out, though, the conversion rate went up.

Pope’s goal was the first of four on the corners, as she stuffed home a rebound to make it 2-0 and give the Falcons some margin for error to go with their dominance, though they wouldn’t need it.

“Depending on which side the corner’s on, there’s a different person at the post and it just happened to be me,” Pope said. “I didn’t even really think; I just saw the ball coming to me and went for it.”

Later on, the Falcons were able to substitute freely, and at the end of the game, they had all underclassmen on the field. That included two goalies, who split time in the final period. One of them, Kelsey Begin, produced a diving save at full stretch to preserve the shutout. Tessa Norris wrapped the game up in goal.

“Obviously we have a senior goalie (Camryn Lowman) who plays all the minutes, but we wanted to pull the other two up to give them experience, and it was nice to get them in,” said Severna Park coach Shannon Garden. “It was great to see their desire when they got an opportunity, and it was great to see Kelsey make that save and want to do well with her chance.”

Severna Park plays Long Reach in the semifinals, with the game scheduled for 5:30pm Thursday at Glen Burnie High School.