Girls Lacrosse: Cougars Take Region Championship

With a standout performance from Carly Palmucci on offense and a stifling defensive effort from the back line, the Oakton High girls lacrosse team pulled out a 9-7 victory over Langley High in the Northern Region Championship on Friday.

The Cougars last won the Northern Region title in 2008, the same year as the program's last state title.

"It's so much more of an emotionally tied accomplishment for these seniors because we have fallen short the last few years," Coach Jean Counts said. "They're lacrosse IQ is so high. They know, it's just a matter of putting it all together on the field and they've been doing that lately. It's really exciting. They deserve it."

The Saxons opened scoring within the first 15 seconds, which Allison Turk answered three minutes later on a pass from Carly Palmucci after the Cougar defense shut down the Saxons who twice threatened. But with the score tied at 1-1, the Saxons froze action for more than 10 minutes, merely playing catch with each other and individual players holding the ball for minutes on end before passing. 

The Cougars remained patient and seized an opportunity to steal with 12:31 left in the first half, but the Saxons took the ball back and ate two more minutes off the clock before taking a shot, which Cougar goalkeeper Emily George saved to earn back possession for her team. 

"We talked in the locker room before we came out here about how we knew they were going to slow the ball down because they've done it before," Palmucci said. "We realized we couldn't let them do that because we needed to make them play our game."

Alex Revel ended the scoring drought to put the Cougars up 2-1 on a pass from Jackie Rupp with 8:07 on the clock, but the Saxons again tied the game. Claire Stikeleather scored the Cougars' last goal of the first half on a pass from Turk off the draw, but again the Saxons tied the game. Then the Saxons seized the lead with two straight goals to put them up 5-3 at halftime.

"At halftime, I told the girls, 'They took half of your first half away from you by stalling like that. Don't let that happen again. We have earned the right to play in this game, so we are playing in this game,'" Counts said. "So I think that really made a difference in the way they saw it."

After losing nearly all of the first-half draws, the Cougars looked to seize control of game by grabbing the first draw of the half, which led to a goal from Tori Anderson with Rupp on the assist. The Cougars held the Saxons to two goals in the first half as Palmucci knocked in four of her game-high five goals to take the lead. Kelsey Clarke added an insurance goal with more than five minutes left in the second half put the score at 9-7, where it stayed.

"I think we capitalized on all their mistakes. Our big thing is if we force a turnover on their defensive side, it'll help get us up," Palmucci said. "We always need a spark and then it gets it going."

For the second game in a row, the defense came up huge for the Cougars, getting them out of trouble as the Saxons won draw after draw. With two sophomores and a freshman who never played lacrosse before this year, Counts has a young defense who has improved leaps and bounds since the start of the year.

"Last week was such an intense week for us defensively. We've worked hard on taking hits and making things work. We worked on crashing and paying attention to why certain girls were open, just the holes in our normal defense. Really, it made a big difference," Counts said. "I tell the girls all the time, once you play a certain way or a certain style, you can't go back. And they're playing so well right now."

The Cougars have advanced to the AAA Virginia High School League Girls Lacrosse Tournament for the second straight year. Last year, the Cougars played all the way to the state final, but fell to Madison High. 

They will host Loudoun County at 6 p.m. June 2 in the state quarterfinals. 

"We have prom the night before, so that might be a distraction," Palmucci said. "But I think we'll be able to stay focused and get all the way to the finals again."