Behind Burke's Seven Goals, Dulaney Bests Catonsville for Baltimore County Championship

Coming into Saturday afternoon’s Baltimore County Championship, the Catonsville women's lacrosse team, along with head coach Becky Clipp, knew they would have to slow down Dulaney’s aggressive attack by dominating the time of possession and limiting the Lions’ scoring opportunities on offense.

Unfortunately for the Comets, Dulaney and senior captain Kara Burke were not about to let that happen—the Lions seemingly capitalized on every scoring chance, picked apart Catonsville in transition and won a majority of the 50-50 ground balls.

Led by Burke, who tallied five of her game-high seven goals in the first half, Dulaney (12-2-1) jumped all over the Comets in the opening period, quickly erasing an early 1-0 deficit by reeling off five goals in nine minutes en route to a 9-3 halftime advantage and an eventual 16-6 victory.

Junior Kenzie Brown added three goals and senior Kylie Hanley chipped in with two more to help the Lions bring home their first county championship since 2008.

“I think we figured they would try and slow us down a little bit, and they did a nice job when they won the draws,” Dulaney head coach Kristi Korrow said after the game. “We were very fortunate that we were able to cause quite a few turnovers off the draw and in transition. That really helped us.

“It’s always one of our goals to capitalize off of turnovers and make the most of them. That’s what we were able to do today.”

The Comets (7-7) were led by senior Alex Wallace and junior Rachel Schwaab, who netted two goals apiece. However, when Catonsville didn’t get looks off of transition run-outs or free position shots, it struggled to create opportunities on offense.  

Dulaney goalies Juliann Elmer and Caroline Meegan combined for 11 saves and the Lions experienced defense of seniors Cristina Askew, Tori Parshley and Domonique DiPino harassed Comets attackers all afternoon.

When they did manage clean looks on goal, it was one-and-done on offense for Catonsville, as opposed to Dulaney, which was able to gain several opportunities on its attacking possessions.

“We’d get one chance to go to the goal,” Clipp said. “You can’t give [Dulaney] two, three, four chances—they’re going to score. And we get one chance.”  

“If you play a lot of defense, you’re going to get scored on. But, they did great. Dulaney played a great game.”  

A telling moment in the game occurred about midway through the first period.

Already down 4-1, Catonsville controlled the ball on its offensive end for a good two and a half minutes, straining for a quality scoring chance. Then, after a turnover and a groundball, Dulaney needed all of three passes to whip the ball into their attacking zone, where Hanley finished off the fast break by burying a shot into the back of the net. 

Ahead by six at the break, the Lions quickly erased any possibility of a second-half letdown. Beginning with a Hanley score about 90 seconds in, Dulaney reeled off six unanswered goals to put Catonsville in a 15-3 hole before Comets freshman Brooke Stevens finally ended the run with a goal of her own with 6:40 to play.

In fact, the Comets didn’t get off a shot attempt in the second half until Deb Milani’s back-handed attempt was snagged by Elmer more than nine minutes into the period.

“When a team is down, you always think they are going to come back in the second half,” Burke said of the Lions’ mentality during the break. “Sometimes it’s hard, when we have a lead we get laid back, but we didn’t do that. We stayed strong the whole game.”  

BOX SCORE

Dulaney 16, Catonsville 6

Goals: D-Burke 7, Brown 3, Hanley 2, Lagomarsino, DelBene, Wassel, Seitz.

            C-Wallace 2, Schwaab 2, Milani, Stevens.

Assists: D-Burke, Brown, Hanley.

Saves: D-Elmer 6, Meegan 5.

            C-Campbell 5, Schmulowitz 2.

Shots: D-23

            C-19

Draws: D-15

              C-9

Half: 9-3, Dulaney.