McDonogh first-year girls lacrosse coach Megan Nicotra likes to call it “weathering the storm.” It’s taking another team’s best shot, surviving the onslaught and quickly turning the tables.
On Tuesday, the top-ranked Eagles did just that against No. 2 Maryvale. Down by two early, they blanked the visiting Lions for the next 43:05, building a 10-goal lead before rolling to a 12-5 win in a key Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference game.
“This is something we’ve been working on all season,” senior Amanda Lawson said. “When they go on that run, instead of freaking out we keep composure and never let them score the same way twice. We just come together as a team and wipe it off. We just didn’t let it get into our heads this time.”
Lawson, a Stanford-bound midfielder, had four goals and an assist to go along with four goals from senior midfielder Lela Greene (Penn) and two goals and two assists from senior midfielder Kate Levy (North Carolina) as McDonogh (9-1 overall, 7-0 conference) — ranked No. 3 in the nation by both Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse — built a two-game lead in the A Conference with two weeks left.
To do that, the Eagles first needed to rebound from a lackluster start in which Maryvale sophomore Cayden Reese dominated the early draw and teammates Kadi Rine and Avery Weetenkamp scored goals in the first 4:01 to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.
“We know that every team in this conference is powerful and has the ability to score quickly, so we’ve talked about responding when we get punched,” Nicotra said. “Today, I think we responded. We’ve got a very senior-heavy team. They have experience and they trust each other, and we just rely on that trust.”
McDonogh reeled off the next 12 goals, time and again winning draws or forcing turnovers, then finishing at the other end. Maryvale (10-2, 6-2), ranked No. 11 by Inside Lacrosse and No. 15 by USA Lacrosse, simply couldn’t generate any offense as McDonogh pulled away.
“They got two on us early and we stayed calm,” sophomore defender Kit Laake said. “We didn’t let that get to us and we went on a 12-goal run, which was amazing and helped take the pressure off of us.”
It was a stellar performance for a defense that on Saturday allowed just four goals in a win over Darien (Conn.), which had been the nation’s No. 1 team. McDonogh’s lone loss this season was a one-goal defeat last month at the hands of Episcopal Academy (Pa.), now the nation’s consensus No. 2 team.
It’s these out-of-conference tests, players say, that help prepare them for the IAAM A Conference, considered by many to be the toughest conference in the nation.
“This is a really tough conference, but being able to play these out-of-conference top-five teams in the nation really just puts us against a different level to test our heart as a team,” Lawson said. “Coming off that [Darien game], we were honestly a little nervous because it’s like, can we stay at that level for such a long time? But I think we proved today that we deserved [that win], and we came out today and played the best we could.”
McDonogh 12, Maryvale 5
Goals: Ma — Kinkead, Koepsell, Minderlein, Rine, Weetenkamp; Mc — Lawson 4, Greene 4, Levy 2, Schaller, Rippin. Assists: Ma — Minderlein, Reese; Mc — Levy 2, Lawson. Saves: Ma — DeLuca 6; Mc — O’Donovan 4. Half: McDonogh 6-2.