Froede's OT Goal Wins Patriot District

Lake Braddock's team motto all year has been, "This is it." With respect to Coach Diane Miller and her Bruin field hockey team, Thursday night was just the start.

Ali Froede's goal less than five minutes into overtime gave the Bruins a 1-0 win over South County and made them Patriot District champions for the first time since 2007. They move on to the Northern Region tournament as the top seed from the district.

"I'm just so excited for [the girls]," Miller said. "They had to really dig down deep to win this game."

As they've done all season, the Bruins dominated possession from start to finish. They earned seven penalty corners, five in the first half, and seemingly spent the entire first 30 minutes in the Stallions' circle, but time and time again were shut down by the efforts of South County junior goalie Kendall Clifton.

"She had an excellent game," Froede said of Clifton. "It was very frustrating."

Froede alleviated her own frustrations and those of the rest of her teammates with the championship-winning goal, her 11th of the season, in the 6-on-6 overtime. Maria Pastor dribbled the ball deep into South County territory and dished it off to Froede, who wheeled around and shot the ball past Clifton into the left corner of the goal.

"I don't really remember it," Froede said. "It's all kind of a blur now, but it's great to win it."

While the goal-scorer doesn't remember it, her coach didn't even see the tally that made her a Patriot District champion for the 21st time.

"When we took it down in overtime, at first I didn't know it went in," Miller said laughing. "I just kind of stood there. Then I saw the officials' signal and I ran. They don't usually see me run."

South County's best offensive chances came on counterattacks after clearing the ball from its zone, generally the best way to take advantage of Lake Braddock's aggressive style. The Stallions practiced counterattacking Wednesday in advance of the championship game.

"We worked on it at practice, being able to transition the ball quickly and dump it behind their defense, trying to get breakaways" said South County Coach Leah Conte. "We just didn't capitalize."

The Bruins focused their defensive efforts on keeping the Stallions' strong right side from developing any sort of rhythm all night. That manifested itself in higher-quality scoring chances for Lake Braddock.

The Bruins will enjoy the championship over the weekend, which includes Lake Braddock's homecoming, but it's back to business on Monday in preparation for regionals. In addition to the Stallions, the Fairfax Rebels, Centreville Wildcats and Westfield Bulldogs all look like potential roadblocks for Lake Braddock.

"It's going to be a hard regional tournament, there's going to be a lot of good teams," Miller said.

Froede agreed with her coach that the road ahead will be challenging, but expressed confidence in her team.

"We're a very strong team all the way through and we can definitely go far if we play our game," Froede said. "We just need to keep up, play like we did [tonight] and keep adding to our game."

After seemingly eliciting every cheer they had in their respective bodies after Froede's goal, the Bruins let out one last roar during Miller's post-game speech after the coach gave them the weekend off.

"We'll relax a little bit, but it's back to focus on Monday," Froede said.