Robinson's Playoff Run Comes to an End with 15-7 Loss to Langley

The Langley Saxons are young, but they certainly aren’t showing any signs of inexperience in high pressure situations. Three sophomores helped build an early lead, withstand a rally, and close out the game as the Saxons continued their Northern Region title defense with a 15-7 win quarterfinal win over Robinson on Thursday.

Rachel Wagner scored five goals and had two assists, Hayley Soutter added two goals and five assists and Erin Long made eight saves to lead Langley. Despite suffering three different injuries, Robinson’s Campbell Collier returned each time and scored three goals and added an assist.

The final score was nowhere near what it was when these teams met on April 26, a 16-14 Langley win. Saxons head coach Richard DeSomma was stunned at the different results, but admitted that there was one particular area of the game his team had been working on.

“They were just as good, and we were just as good, so I’m not sure what the difference was,” DeSomma said. “Sometimes it’s just a shot here, a turnover there. I do know that our girls wanted to come out and play well.”

While the Rams held a distinct advantage on draw control in the first meeting, the Saxons used the committee method on Thursday to combat the size and physicality of Campbell Collier.

“Our number one goal above all was to change that,” DeSomma said of the percentage of draws won. “If we changed nothing else, we were going to change that.”

Robinson head coach Sally Collier was much more direct with her appraisal.

“We weren’t getting draws today,” she said. “That was the story.”

Langley jumped ahead early after Margo Swomley scored the Saxons’ first three goals and Wagner helped extend the lead to 8-2. The typically possession-driven Langley offense may have taken its foot off the gas a bit too early though, as Collier scored the next two goals and Shannon Picards drew the suddenly up-tempo Rams within three going into halftime. DeSomma acknowledged that unforced errors were a problem at the end of the first half, but doesn’t believe that too much patience was to blame.

“We made some turnovers, some bad passes, and I think that hurt,” he said. “We’ve got to clean that up.”

Robinson attempted to keep the pressure up after the break, but Long stopped a Katie Rowson breakaway in the opening seconds, and Wagner took a feed after a nice cut in front of the goal and extended the lead back to four. The Rams never got closer. While that exchange seemed to deflate Robinson’s momentum, Collier doesn’t believe it was the sole turning point.

“I’d hate to think that one save made a difference, and I don’t think it [did],” she said. “We were ready to come out.”

A semifinal match up with Concorde District champion Oakton now awaits. The teams last met in the second round of the 2010 regional tournament, when Langley prevailed 16-10. In anticipation of a potential rematch, DeSomma said that he watched the Cougars play “probably four times” this year, and feels confident that he’s familiar enough to draw up a gameplan.

That game will be the early semifinal next Tuesday at Robinson with a 5 p.m. start time. Chantilly and Madison represent the other half of the doubleheader, and the winner of those games will meet in the championship game on Thursday, May 26 at 5 p.m. at Robinson.