Dulaney girls lacrosse uses second-half spurt to beat Catonsville, 16-13, for Baltimore County championship
Six days after handily defeating Catonsville, Dulaney found itself trailing the same Comets by four goals in the first half and one goal early in the third quarter of Monday’s Baltimore County girls lacrosse championship game.
That’s when the host Lions put it in high gear and reeled off eight straight goals. They withstood the final four goals from the Comets and emerged with a 16-13 victory and the county championship.
The county title was the first for the Lions (9-6) since 2017.
Mia Connor, Heidi Schmidt, Sarah Crowley and Emma Center led the Lions with three goals each and Crowley added three assists. Casey Fisher (three goals, two assists), Kate Roberson (three goals), Kaitlyn Welsh, Maggie Kubofcik (two goals each) and Katie DeWitt (one goal, three assists) led Catonsville (7-6).
Catonsville trailed 8-7 at halftime, but goals by Dewitt and Ballinger gave it a 9-8 lead in the first three minutes of the second half. That’s when Dulaney senior Mia Connor took control, assisting Crowley and Schmidt for the game-tying and go-ahead goals. Connor scored her third goal of the game coming from behind the cage for an 11-9 lead and the Lions continued to pour it on.
“I felt like one after another we got draw control and we had a settled offense and we were able to find an open girl and occupy our defenders to get each other an open lane to goal,” Connor said.
Back-to-back goals by Center was followed by goals from Schmidt, Crowley and Center again to stretch the lead to 16-9 lead with 8:33 remaining.
When Elena Emde wasn’t corralling the draws in the second half, the Lions ride forced timely turnovers.
“We knew we had to pick up the pressure. We knew that that was going to be a key piece if we wanted to start getting it back and really kind of taking off with things,” Dulaney coach Kristi Korrow said. “We are definitely capable of putting pressure on people and we were kind of sitting back a little bit.”
Catonsville refused to quit and got goals from Welsh, Roberson, Kubofcik and Fisher in the final eight minutes, but Connor killed most of the last two minutes playing keep away from the Comets.
“That’s kind of my favorite part,” Connor said. “I love that so much because I have confidence in myself that I know where my stick is and where the other girl is.”
“Mia is willing to work. She’s willing to do anything for the team and she’s smart and patient and she’s somebody that we can look to,” Korrow said. “She’s a senior and she’s got an incredible presence about her. The girls look to her and she communicates well. I am so proud of her, she really stayed nice and calm and composed.”
It was the Comets who played patient and composed in the first half when they turned a 3-2 deficit into a 7-3 lead thanks to standout work at the draw circle by Kubofcik. She and the Comets won 9 of the first 11 draws in the first quarter and early in the second.
“The last game they didn’t really play their game and today they did, so you can’t be angry about that,” Catonsville coach Cantey Bailey said. “They kept fighting and they never gave up and that’s something that as a coach, you are always proud of. I think the things we didn’t do as successfully last week we were doing this week, we’ve just got to play a whole game. I think in the third quarter we had a couple too many letdowns and they were able to go on that run and we just couldn’t get out of it.”
Korrow knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as last week when the Lions built a 17-3 lead before the Comets scored the final five goals.
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“I think this is the game we expected last week,” Korrow said. “We know that they are a very talented squad and they were going to come out hungry today and I knew Cantey would have them ready and definitely starting off with the draw controls. Last game it was a little more lopsided and today it was a little more even and that made a huge difference.”
“One of the things we had a hard time with in the first quarter was off-ball movement, so I just felt like once we changed that we were able to capitalize on our opportunities and see the open lanes,” said Connor, who was especially excited about her first championship after losing to Towson last year.
“This year, finally as a senior I’m so happy we won,” Connor added.
Dulaney — 3 5 6 2 — 16
Catonsville — 4 3 2 4 — 13
Goals: Dul — Mia Connor 3, Heidi Schmidt 3, Sarah Crowley 3, Emma Center 3, London Krafft 2, Elena Emde 1, Anna Jones 1; Cat – Casey Fisher 3, Kate Roberson 3, Kaitlyn Welsh 2, Maggie Kubofcik 2, Katie DeWitt 1, Anna Ballinger 1, Maeve Miller 1; Assists: Dul — Crowley 3 Connor 1, Maxine Keakel 1, Caitlyn Keppeler 1; Cat — Dewitt 3, Fisher 2, Ballinger 1, Miller 1; Saves: Dul — Torunn Spencer 4; Cat – Ava Bruns 9.