From The Sun's Glenn Graham:

The playoff run enjoyed by the Pallotti girls soccer team in capturing its first Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship -- sealed by a 1-0 win over McDonogh on Sunday -- typified the Panthers' methodical ride to the top of the area's toughest league.

After enjoying success in the B Conference with a confident freshmen class in 2003, Pallotti moved up to the A ranks in 2004 and took its share of lumps. In 2005, the Panthers surprised some people, earning respect with a run to the semifinals. Last year, the ideal story would have been for that original freshmen class of five to leave as league champions, but Spalding had other ideas in claiming a 1-0 win in the title game.

So, hit hard by graduation, the 2007 Panthers were considered an afterthought with Spalding bringing back most of its gifted team, McDonogh's talented group one year older and John Carroll also in the mix.

Pallotti hit some bumps along the way, going 8-5-2 during the regular season to finish with the fifth seed in the playoffs. The Panthers took to the road and overcame an early surge from Institute of Notre Dame in the quarterfinals, went to top-seeded John Carroll and found a way to grind out a win in double overtime in the semifinals, and then stood firm against McDonogh in the title game.

All three playoff games were 1-0 finishes. Senior midfielder Randall Marshall, who scored the game-winning goals in the last two wins, had everything you needed to know written down on tape on her shoes: Annesia Faulkner, Ellie Vawter, Amy Strebin, Taryn Elman, Chelsea Elston. That was last year's senior class that made it all possible. "They gave us the confidence we needed," Marshall said after the game.