By: Spencer Grams

   As the final seconds ticked away on the scoreboard, the dream was finally complete: the Marriotts Ridge Mustangs Girls’ Lacrosse team defeated the Severna Park Falcons in an 11-10 thriller for the Maryland girls’ lacrosse 3A state championship. Emotions ran high as the girls swarmed the field in celebration with joyful parents, ecstatic students and elated faculty watching from the stands.

   From the beginning of the season, Coach Amanda Brady has preached the motto ‘worth it’ to the girls. Brady says the phrase guided the team by creating their vision of how the season should go, and that despite the overall youth of the team, she wanted to emphasize the constant ups and downs that any given season may have. And ups and downs there were. The girls started the season 0-2 with back-to-back losses to Glenelg and Severna Park, both of whom would end up in their respective state championships. 

   “We started off 0-2. We had a really tough start to the season in terms of who we were playing and quality opponents, which is tough when you’re a young team. So I think that was a mental shift of recognizing you got to move past it and learn from it,” voiced Brady.

   Learn from it, they did. A bounce-back win against Mt. Hebron, which led to a five-game winning streak, brought the team back to life, giving them momentum heading into Spring Break. After a tie, a win, and a loss during the break, they returned to league play, where they finished the regular season with a 3-1 record, with their only loss coming against River Hill in their final game.
  “Losing that game was tough, but it showed us that we were not unbeatable, and we always have something to work on to get better,” junior Allison Custer stated.

   The playoff draw was upon them, where they would be the three seed in the 3A South I region, facing Mount Hebron in the first round. A dominant 8-2 win over the Vikings led the team to face Long Reach, where they would storm the Lightning 20-1. In the regional championship, they faced Westminster, whom they had played just two weeks before. And although the Owls gave them trouble, ultimately, Marriotts Ridge would move on to the state quarter finals after a 9-8 win.

   “Winning those three games after losing to [River Hill] really helped us prove to ourselves that we could do it. Everyone on the team stepped up, and it was such a big confidence booster,” junior Lucy Cronin said.

   The Mustangs would enter the 3A State Championship as the sixth seed to play Northern High School. The girls would breeze by Patriots 21-5 and onto the quarter-final round against Sherwood. Up to this point, Sherwood was a perfect 15-0; however, the Mustangs shocked the Warriors in a 16-6 upset, leading them to their first state championship game since 2022.

   The championship was set, and a rematch against the team that had bested them in the second game of the season was to take place at Stevenson University. The Mustangs came out dominant in the first half, up 6-3, with 10:31 left in the half; nevertheless, the Falcons’ offense was strong, and the two teams went into halftime knotted at seven after scoring three unanswered goals. 

   Starting the second half, Marriotts Ridge continued to be stagnant, trailing 9-7 with seven minutes left in the third and 10-8 heading into the fourth quarter. However, the fourth quarter was the turning point. Hayden Baumgartner scored on an assist from Katie Leader, putting the Mustangs within one, then just 69 seconds later, Allison Custer scored, tying the game at 10. In the final 3:30, Sophia McGinnis netted the game-winning goal, putting the Mustangs up 11-10 and leading them to win their third state championship since 2021.

   A season that was ignited by wins and doused by losses had ended with the grandest win of all. As the final seconds ticked away on the scoreboard, emotions ran high with the dream becoming reality on a cold, rainy May day. The season was well worth it.