From The Sun's Katherine Dunn:

Some final thoughts on the field hockey season…

No. 2 Severna Park, No. 5 Fallston and Century overcame significant glitches in their seasons to peak at the right time. None of them won their county or local conference championships on the way to the state finals.

Severna Park lost three games against Anne Arundel County foes, something that hadn’t happened since long before any of this year’s Falcons were even born, but rebounded to win a 17th state title in Class 4A.

Fallston suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to Rising Sun, which kept it from playing in the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference title game. The Cougars played three overtime games during the regular season and didn’t win any of them, but they won the one that counted -- 1-0 in double overtime over Bethesda-Chevy Chase in 3A for their 10th title.

Century lost its last three regular-season games, but avenged two of them in the regional playoffs before reaching the state final for the first time in school history. As coach Gayle Taylor said, “This is just the beginning” for the Knights."

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There’s no I in team even in the IAAM.

Perhaps the best overall team performance of the season came from Garrison Forest in winning the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship.

The Grizzlies end the season No. 1 thanks to a group of girls – more than half of whom are underclassmen – who bonded so well on the field that it was impossible to single out just one player. Liza Blue, Emily Cain and Alex Goldstein were named to the A Conference All-Star team, but five or six others could easily have joined them.

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Fallston’s field hockey team had the biggest, most boisterous cheering section of any team in a championship hockey game. A few hundred folks made the trip to Annapolis’ Broadneck High School for the state final.

“It’s incredible, our fan base,” said Cougars coach Alice Puckett. “We’ve had a great fall for all of our teams and it was so disappointing when girls soccer lost and boys soccer lost and girls volleyball, because we really felt like we were going to make a run at a lot of state titles. So the fact that they’re ending their season so disappointingly, because some of the better teams didn’t win, to come support us, just shows you what a great community. I’m so proud to be a part of it.”