South County’s girls lacrosse team had motivation; Tuesday was senior night. The team showed resiliency. The Stallions twice overcame four-goal deficits to tie the score against West Potomac. But when the final horn sounded, the Stallions were left looking for answers while their home field turned into a Wolverines celebration.
West Potomac defeated South County 14-12, dropping the Stallions' record to 2-7. South County is 1-4 in the Patriot District with a road game against West Springfield on April 28 and a home game against Lake Braddock on April 30 remaining before the district tournament.
"The girls are just doing phenomenal, and for whatever reason we just can't put the pieces of the puzzle together," second-year South County head coach Sarah King said. "We all want it so badly. We have the skill, we have the talent and the knowledge, and [we're] hurting. We've got a couple more games to get it together before we go into the district playoff."
Meanwhile, West Potomac enjoyed the victory.
"We beat South County tonight," Wolverines senior Margaret Kerr said, "that's the biggest [win] that we've had."
While South County fell short, the Stallions proved resilient. West Potomac jumped out to a 4-0 lead before a goal by South County senior midfielder Katie Fuchs got the Stallions on the board with 10:20 remaining in the first half. South County called timeout after the goal and came out a different team.
"We called a timeout and all of our seniors and captains were like, 'Don't get down on yourself, we have this,'" junior attack Molly Berberian said. "Then we started getting the draws and I think everything turned around from there."
South County battled back to tie the score at 4-4 and trailed 8-7 at halftime. West Potomac built an 11-7 lead in the second half, but South County scored four straight goals to the score at 11-11. It wasn't enough, however, as the Wolverines scored three of the final four goals.
Junior attacks Tara O'Connor and Berberian each scored three goals for South County. Junior midfielder Cassidy Moses scored two and senior defender Tori Craven, sophomore midfielder Lindsey Lawrence and sophomore attack Katherine Walton each scored one.
Five Stallions seniors played their final night home game: Fuchs, Craven, defenders Tori Rowley, Angela Cargiulo and midfielder Patty Rafferty.
Fuchs is the team's center midfielder and one of its top offensive threats. Rowley is a key defender, Rafferty and Craven are captains and Cargiulo will play Division II lacrosse in Florida.
Craven's goal was her first of the season.
"She's been talking about it all season," King said. "She's smart, she stays back and she does her thing, but the starts aligned for her."