After watching Fallston’s girls basketball team upset highly favored Paint Branch in the Class 3A state final two months ago, I thought it would be a long time before I saw anything that impressive in a state tournament.
Leave it to another team of Fallston girls to prove me wrong.
In one of the most dominating performances in state lacrosse tournament history, the No. 14 Cougars rolled over No. 3 Mount Hebron, 16-1, Tuesday night at UMBC. It was their first state lacrosse title just as it had been their first state basketball title.
Two players – Monica Fischer and McKenzie Hannahs – played on both teams and also played in the state final with the soccer team last fall. Several lacrosse players -- including Jenn Ward and Roxy Raab, who combined for nine goals against Mount Hebron -- played on the state championship field hockey team.
While it has been a banner school year for the Cougars girls – their softball team reached the state semifinal Tuesday night before dropping a 1-0 game to Northern of Calvert County and their volleyball team made it unbeaten to the regional final before falling to eventual state champ Centennial – the performances of the undefeated basketball team and the 17-2 lacrosse team were remarkable in how they overcame such heavily favored opponents.
There never seemed to be a doubt among the players that they were going to win, although I would venture to guess that few others gave them a chance in either game. I figured they had a shot at the lacrosse title but only in a close game -- and that feeling certainly came from watching what the basketball team did.
Mike McTeague, who coached both the basketball (filling in for Vern Brown) and the lacrosse teams, didn’t really expect those endings either, sitting down at both post title-game press conferences to ask something like, “OK, so who here expected that would happen?”
McTeague, in his fourth season as lacrosse coach, gave all the credit to the players.
“Like basketball, the thing that surprised me about these girls,” he said, “… is coming in here against a team that’s won 15 state championships – basketball we were playing a team that had five state championships coming back for back-to-back – it’s tough to get girls to believe that they can win. It’s one thing to have talent, but you have to have the personalities and I was so lucky as a coach to have two teams that had that kind of personality that they took the floor as competitors. They believe they’re going to win, if they play hard, they’re going to win. To believe that is half the battle, especially against legendary teams like the ones we played.”
Fischer, an All-Metro soccer player who hit key three-pointers and finished with 14 points in the 65-62 basketball win, contributed two goals and a handful of caused turnovers in a stellar midfield performance during the lacrosse final.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year, three state championships – two winning and one finalist,” Fischer said. “My teammates were great, working well together and the coaches were phenomenal. Only three losses all year, it’s an amazing way to go out ending my high school career.”
