“Initially my plan was to take the shot, and then I saw Jenna was open,” Datch said. “… I just heard the noise, and I knew that Jenna had taken the hit and scored.”
Datch, a senior committed to Davidson, also assisted the Bulldogs’ first goal, sending a cross to the waiting stick of Nora O’Connor, who calmly slotted it home.
After a do-it-yourself goal by Whitman (14-2) sophomore Emma Foscarini evened the score, it took a tense extra period to separate the two teams, who required overtime in all three of their matchups this season.
Success in the state playoffs has become the norm for Churchill (16-1), which will play in its third consecutive championship game but came up short in each of its past two tries. The Bulldogs are determined not to settle for second place again.
“The first two years that we made it, we were just happy to be there,” Datch said. “This year, we want it so bad. We know that we deserve to win.”
Crofton 2, Broadneck 0: Kylie Corcoran has a knack for delivering in the biggest moments. The Crofton senior, responsible for the game-winning goal in last year’s Maryland 3A championship game, was the first Cardinal to score in Thursday’s 4A semifinal, helping propel her team to a victory over defending champion Broadneck (16-2) at John F. Kennedy High School.
With just more than three minutes left in the first quarter, Crofton (15-2) earned a penalty stroke. Corcoran confidently stepped up and let loose an unstoppable rocket into the bottom left corner.
“I’ve been working this entire week making sure I get my strokes in,” Corcoran said. “I knew I could do it. I knew I needed it for my team.”
In a back-and-forth bout between Anne Arundel County foes, Crofton goalie Ryleigh Osborne was under frequent duress but rose up to the occasion.
“These are the games that goalkeepers live for,” said Osborne, a Maryland commit. “Pressure is a privilege — that was always our team motto for the year. And I held myself to that during this game.”
It’s the Cardinals’ first year in the 4A classification, and they’re just one win away from standing atop it.
Mount Hebron 2, Severna Park 1: For the first time since 2013, Mount Hebron will play for a state championship. The Vikings held off Severna Park on Thursday evening in a Maryland 3A semifinal showdown in Glen Burnie.
Both of Mount Hebron’s goals, courtesy of AC Lindner and Tylar Fleck, came on penalty corners. Early in the season, the Vikings (15-1) struggled to convert their corner opportunities. As the season went on, that trend dissipated, and their ability to come through in those spots allowed them to erase an early deficit.
In the final minutes, Severna Park (10-5) surged forward, forcing Mount Hebron to play on its back foot. But the Vikings held strong, keeping the Falcons out of the cage to advance.
“It was a really hard-fought game,” Mount Hebron Coach Jeannette Ireland said. “They’ve worked so hard. … At the end of the game, we were gassed.”
Northern 3, Wootton 2: Northern scored two unanswered goals to defeat Wootton on Thursday night at Glen Burnie High School, sending it to the Maryland 3A championship game.
After a Naomi Esterowitz goal gave Wootton (12-4) a 2-1 lead, Northern (14-1) rallied and tied the game. Then came the decisive play — a penalty stroke that Olivia Bond stepped up to and converted to give Northern a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“That stroke is what pushed them and said: ‘We can do this. This is possible for us,’ ” Northern Coach CoraJo Tozzolo said.
Northern is comfortable in high-leverage situations, a strength it developed during its run to the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference championship. Eventually, it took control of the game and kept its foot on the gas.
“We just ran out of ability to defend them. I think they wore us down a bit,” Wootton Coach Terry Dalle-Tezze said.
Glenelg 2, Manchester Valley 0: Glenelg moved within one win of a third straight Maryland 2A championship when it defeated Manchester Valley on Wednesday at Kennedy.
Before a third-quarter goal from Brinkley Eyre opened the scoring, neither team was able to make headway in a game primarily played in the midfield.
“Sometimes when you play a tough team like this, you tend to get out of your comfort zone,” Glenelg (12-2) Coach Martie Dyer said. “In the second half, we started playing like we know how to play.”
Late in the fourth quarter, senior AJ Eyre followed her junior sister’s example and doubled Glenelg’s lead.
During Dyer’s tenure at Atholton, she won the 2012 Maryland 3A championship by defeating Hereford. In her first year at Glenelg, the Bulls (13-2), who bested Queen Anne’s County (14-1) on the opposite side of the bracket, are all that stand between the Gladiators and another trophy.
South Carroll 3, Patuxent 2: Patuxent fell to South Carroll in a penalty shootout in Wednesday’s Maryland 1A semifinal at Glen Burnie High. It is the second consecutive year the Panthers (12-3) ended their season in the state semifinals after finishing as state runners-up in 2021.
Autumn Kern scored a pair of goals off penalty corners, once in the first quarter and again to tie the game in the fourth. But after two scoreless overtime periods, it was ultimately South Carroll (9-3-1) that prevailed in penalty strokes to set up a rematch of last year’s title game with Pocomoke (13-3), the classification’s two-time reigning champion.