From The Sun's Glenn Graham:

It is often said soccer can be a cruel game and an example came in McDonogh's well-deserved, but unconventional 1-0 win over defending Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference champion Archbishop Spalding in Thursday's semifinal.

With scoring chances limited in a defensive battle mostly played in the middle of the field, overtime looked to be a given when a Spalding defender played a ball back to All-Metro senior goalkeeper Karen Blocker with less than three minutes to play. Over the course of Blocker's stellar four-year career, it has been a common and valuable asset for the Cavaliers to use her foot skills and field sense to relieve defensive pressure.

This time, though, McDonogh sophomore forward Hannah Franklin proved a disruption to Blocker's customary poised play. She got to Blocker just after the ball, jumping in front and deflecting Blocker's attempted clear, with the ball going backward into the goal. Blocker was understandably disappointed after the game, but she has so many more positive memories to look back on in her high school career than the abrupt ending.

In her four years, she posted 57 shutouts -- including 16 this season -- and played a major role in putting Spalding girls soccer on the map in the area's toughest league. With a 4.61 weighted grade-point average and 1,890 on her SAT's, Blocker is undecided about where she will attend college -- University of Pittsburgh, Boston University and Liberty University are at the top of her list -- but she will no doubt be somewhere next fall making big saves and recording more shutouts.