Urbana Ends the Lady Rines' Run

Watkins Mill’s ascent this season into field hockey legitimacy came to an unceremonious end on Monday night as the Urbana Hawks blanked the Lady ‘Rines with a wealth of skill and speed that belies how much room the program has left to grow.

The 9-0 defeat in the 3A West semifinal leaves Watkins Mill with a record of 8-4-1, the school’s best finish since the 2004 squad went 9-3 in the regular season. Watkins Mill has had only one winning season since, but this year’s crop of seniors have combined with fourth-year Coach Michelle Pettit to reverse the program’s fortunes, improving from 3-10 in 2009 to 5-9 in 2010 to 7-7 last year.

This year’s team jumped out to a 7-1-1 record, highlighted by and holding Poolesville scoreless for nearly the entire first half a week later. They took their second loss against a strong team from Churchill 2-0 on Oct. 15—again playing the Bulldogs to a stalemate for an entire half.

Against Urbana—which had scored more than twice as many goals as Watkins Mill—the gap was clear from the get-go. The Hawks burst out of the gates with two goals from senior forward Molly Stuart in the first two minutes as Watkins Mill struggled with the speed of the artificial turf at Linganore High School.

Watkins Mill settled in and held the high-powered Hawks scoreless for 20 minutes—though Urbana continued to dominate possession, corners and shots—until Leslie Allen broke through for a goal to push the lead to 3-0 heading into halftime.

Urbana came out firing in the second half, scoring three more in the first five minutes. Meg Stuart and Molly Stuart scored Urbana’s final three goals of the night, giving the duo two goals and four goals, respectively.

“We met our match, it happens.” Pettit told her players after the game. “We aren’t at that level yet. … You finished with a record with twice as many wins as losses. That’s something you can be really proud of.”