Stone Bridge Girls' LAX Loses

Bulldogs Fall to Top-Seeded Woodson

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Rachel Obregon stood next to the scorer's table less than four minutes into Tuesday's AAA Liberty District girls' lacrosse semifinal against Stone Bridge at Marshall High School, shouting direction and encouragement to her teammates as they darted past her on the field. The yellow card W.T. Woodson’s junior attacker received moments earlier was just about the only thing that could slow her down on a rain-soaked night in Fairfax.

With six goals and an assist from Obregon, four tallies by senior middie Carrie Pritchard and two goals and three assists from senior attacker Lauren King, the top-seeded Cavaliers held off the No. 4 Bulldogs to reach Friday's district final with a 17-11 victory.

Stone Bridge came out strong from the opening draw as junior middie Rachael Pascale scored the opening goal less than two minutes in, beating Woodson senior goalkeeper Carolyn Fridley. But the Cavaliers responded with four straight tallies of their own – including two by Obregon – to take a 4-1 lead they would never relinquish.

"Rachael is our biggest threat heading into the playoffs," Woodson Coach Meaghan O'Leary said of the first team All-Liberty district selection. "She has just come on since Langley our second to last district game. She's not only scoring, she’s assisting, she's running the attack. Everyone is looking for her and she's just on fire right now."

With dominating play in the midfield and an attack that controlled possession around the Bulldogs' goalmouth for much of the contest, Woodson was able to create quality scoring opportunities all night long. Despite a strong, 11-save effort from Stone Bridge junior netminder Coral Ryan, the Cavaliers held a 10-6 lead at the intermission.

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The umbrellas were out as the rains came down on Stone Bridge and Woodson during their AAA Liberty District tournament semifinal on Tuesday at Marshall. (Matt Brooks)

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Stone Bridge junior middie Holly Kramer sits out with a yellow card late in the first half of the Bulldogs' Liberty District semifinal against Woodson on Tuesday at Marshall. (Matt Brooks)

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Stone Bridge Coach Kristin Howard gives instructions to senior attacker Amy Rollins. (Matt Brooks)

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Stone Bridge's Lauren Guisti (8), Kayla Sleece (11), Rachael Pascale (13) and Holly Kramer (obscured) were all awarded first-team All-Liberty District honors following the Bulldogs' semifinal game against Woodson. (Matt Brooks)

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After falling behind 6-2 at the 10-minute mark on Obregon’s third goal of the game, the Bulldogs answered with back to back goals from junior first team All-District middie Lauren Giusti to cut the deficit to 6-4. But again, Woodson had an answer, netting three straight goals in two minutes of action to bump the lead back to 9-4.

"Everyone on our team is a threat," O’Leary said. "We just came ready to play today. The rain definitely made it difficult in the beginning, but in the second half we showed how much we want this district championship."

The Bulldogs (9-4) came out firing to start the second half, scoring two goals in the opening five minutes with another Obregon tally in between to cut the lead back to 11-8, but they would get no closer the rest of the way. Shortly after King sprinted upfield, weaving her way through the Stone Bridge defense on a 60-yard run that culminated with her first goal of the game, Obregon was shown the yellow card. But after Stone Bridge freshman Kayla Sleece scored to cut the lead to four, the undermanned Cavaliers score twice in 25 seconds, the second on another 50-yard individual effort from King. Three minutes later, Obregon salted away the victory with her sixth marker of the game.

"Our midfield really stepped up today but I don't think they had enough support from the attackers or the defense," Stone Bridge Coach Kristin Howard said. "Some people stepped up like Lauren Guisti, Kayla Sleece and Rachael Pascale had amazing games, they just needed assistance from other players. Woodson has a lot of threats out there on the field and they took advantage of all of them tonight."

The result was much closer than the 16-6 Woodson romp in their regular-season meeting on April 22, but still came up short of what Howard was hoping for from her young team. Giusti led the way for a team that features just one senior, 11 juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen, putting up four goals and Sleece finished with three goals and an assist. As one of the top four teams in the district, the Bulldogs earned a spot in the Northern Region tournament, though they'll likely face one of their toughest tests of the season as they'll be paired with a team from the Concorde District.

"They're always one of the top districts in regionals and in states," Howard said. "I think we'll probably get the top team in the whole region. We're just going to work on some things to get in a position to be ready to play them. We're playing on the road and hopefully we'll be able to hang with those teams."

With the win, the Cavaliers move on to face Madison which defeated Langley, 14-13, in the other semifinal in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion with a slew of goals in the final minutes. As regular season district champions, they will likely earn a top seed in the Northern Region tournament regardless of Friday's result. As far as Howard is concerned, Woodson should be considered one of the favorites in the region.

"Their defense is unstoppable and so is everyone else," she said. "I think they're going to win it all, personally. They've got a solid team this year and they've really come up from last year."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks