[Baltimore Sun] Park girls lacrosse rides overwhelming start to 15-5 victory over Indian Creek
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The weather cycled through rain, sleet, thawing sun and chilling wind every 10 to 20 minutes through Indian Creek and Park girls lacrosse’s Thursday matchup.
The Bruins were not so inconsistent.
After a string of demoralizing defeats followed by unexpected rain-or-power-related days off, Park needed this kind of victory, a 15-5 takedown of a regular Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference contender. The Bruins overpowered the Eagles immediately with 10 straight goals split evenly between the first two quarters, with Keenan Clark, Cassandra Kitchen and Elizabeth Rosenbaum swapping quick strikes to the back of the strings.
Maybe, Park coach Robin Lowe remarked, the unplanned rest did her team some good.
“This really boosts our confidence,” Clark said. “I think going into Gerstell [Friday], we want to carry this intensity into it and play our hardest.”
Indian Creek coach Danielle Stanton looked on with horror and awe at Clark for her early pickups at the draw circle, her ground balls and her first three of four goals.
Offensive cohesion had previously confounded the Bruins (2-1, IAAM B), but not on Thursday. The visitors showed a devotion to the team’s system while implementing a few new elements here and there — adding plays where everyone can put a stick on the ball, where there was never a moment that a girl in a brown jersey was caught standing still.
“We just really wanted to add motion into our offense because we saw in previous games, it’d gotten stagnant,” Clark said.
It wasn’t just Park’s ferocity that threw Indian Creek (2-1) into a downward spiral. Stanton ascribes a lot of the program’s success over the last two years to its star junior and captain Abbey Bunker, who went down last Thursday against River Hill and watched this Thursday’s events with an umbrella in one hand and the other in a black cast.
Stanton and crew hoped for a minor sprain and didn’t find out the rotten news until Thursday morning.
“It was a mental and physical knock to the team to not have her out there,” Stanton said. “We’re kind of lost without her.”
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But even with the game so clearly out of control by halftime, 10-1, Indian Creek still devised a plan: score five goals; hold them to five.
They almost got there. As icy winds picked up, so did Indian Creek. The Eagles, led by Sophee Gomberg and January Bear, rustled up six draw controls. Freshman Stephanie Bunker, who lodged the Eagles’ first goal at the end of the first half, battled for two more.
It was an unfair burden to place on a freshman, Stanton acknowledged, but one her side poured all their will into supporting. The Eagles bench screamed as if for a tie game with every save Elia Alewine made, every goal Bunker secured.
“We had nothing to lose,” Stanton said. “So, we’re like, ‘We might as well go out and get some pressure on.”
But as energy boiled on the other sideline, Park was not willing to give in. Guided by Kitchen and Clark, the Bruins regained control at the circle, even converting two for swift goals.
“I really liked our consistency there, that it didn’t matter who was taking it,” Lowe said. “We’ve actually spent some time on it, and it’s paying off.”
Had Stephanie Bunker’s hat trick arrived sooner (or Gomberg’s or junior Naima Bead’s goals) it might have altered Park’s momentum. Instead, it had the Bruins glancing at the scoreboard to make sure they didn’t lose their running clock.
Clark could not be stopped, even when a flock of Eagles pressed in on her, even when Alewine clocked her stick head in the direction of the shot itself. The Park attack simply dug the ball free and buried it.
“This is big for us. This is a year where we’ve got a wide gamut of experience and skills and we have a lot of new players that haven’t played a minute of varsity before the season, so,” Lowe said, “I’m really excited by what they could do today.”
Park — 6 4 2 3 — 15
Indian Creek — 0 1 1 3 — 5
Goals: PK — Clark 4, Kitchen 4, Rosenbaum 3, White 1, Tucker 1; IC — Bunker 3, Gomberg 1, Bead 1. Assists: PK — Kitchen 3, Rosenbaum 2, Goldstein 1. Saves: PK — Rubin 2; IC — Alewine 7.
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