The Connection

Oakton’s Stephanie Palmucci failed to score a goal during the first 49-plus minutes of Saturday’s 6A North region tournament semifinal against Centreville.

Luckily for the Cougars, the sophomore attacker saved her goal-scoring best for when it mattered most.

Palmucci scored the tying goal from free position with one second remaining in regulation. The game went to overtime, where Palmucci scored the only goal during two 3-minute periods, giving the Oakton girls’ lacrosse team a 17-16 victory at Centreville High School.

Oakton will face Robinson in the region championship game at 7 p.m. tonight at Robinson Secondary School.

OAKTON, which lost to Centreville during the regular season and the Conference 5 tournament, led 15-12 with 8:17 remaining in the second half, but Centreville scored the next four goals and took a 16-15 lead when Reagan Newell found the back of the net with 21 seconds left.

Caroline Wakefield assisted Newell’s go-ahead goal.

“They were cheering,” Wakefield said about her teammates. “I was like, ‘It’s not over, it’s not over. There’s 20 seconds left.’ I think we got caught up in the moment thinking that there wasn’t any time [on the clock].”

Oakton gained possession and Palmucci headed toward the goal. She was fouled with four seconds remaining, leading to free position, and she scored on a bounce shot with one second left on the clock.

“Stephanie’s a little girl, but a big­time player,” Oakton head coach Jean Counts said. “She’ll step up when she needs to step up. [She] struggled a little bit during regulation and when it counted with four seconds left she had an absolutely clutch play.

“... Stephanie is a second­year varsity player but at the same time she plays like she’s been here for six years.”

With the scoreboard clock stopped late in the second half and official time kept on the sideline, Palmucci said she didn’t know how much time remained.

“I wasn’t thinking about it, but I had an idea because we had been playing for so long,” she said. “I just knew the pressure was on and I had to do something.”

Oakton showed patience with its initial possession of the first 3-minute overtime period. After more than 90 seconds had run off the clock, Palmucci attacked and scored what proved to be the game-winner.

“She’s amazing,” senior midfielder Karlie Cronin said. “Even for being so young, she’s definitely a leader on the field.”

Senior midfielder Kelsey McWilliams led Oakton with four goals. Cronin and senior attacker Lydia Montanino each scored three goals, sophomore attacker/midfielder Rachel Pionke and senior midfielder Jackie McGuinness each had two. Junior attacker Layne Stikeleather added one.

Wakefield and Newell each scored four goals for Centreville.

THE WIN improved Oakton’s record 10-5 and earned the defending region champion Cougars a return trip to the region final. Oakton secured a state berth by beating Madison 14-6 in the region quarterfinals on May 28.

“I like the underdog standpoint,” Counts said. “Some of the other people are kind of like, ‘Hey, why aren’t they giving us any attention?’ Every year, I put my money on being the under­the­radar kind of person. Nothing exciting, no advertising our stats ... we do it together, from the bench to the people on the field to the people in-between. We are just intensely excited that we get to play in the regional final when no one gave us a chance in the beginning of the year.”