National High School Girls' Notebook: Blythewood Repeats in South Carolina
by Jeff Seidel | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
SOUTH
The Blythewood girls’ lacrosse team truly had a perfect season.
The Bengals went 18-0 and wrapped up a second consecutive South Carolina state title with a 14-12 victory over Riverside recently. Blythewood now has won 33 straight in-state games.
Kelsey Thurston led the way in the finals with eight goals. April Piersma helped with two goals and four assists while Katherine Dozier and Trisha Harper each pitched in with two goals and one assists. Goalie Maddy Sears also made a number of tough saves in the victory.
Blythewood took charge early with five straight goals in the first nine minutes. That forced Riverside to play catch-up, and it wasn’t able to complete the task.
Coach Rick Piersma brought back nearly his whole lineup from the 2009 state title team and was confident that 2010 would be a big year also.
“We returned most of our players from the championship the year before,” he said. “We knew we should be in the finals.”
Piersma said the team really didn’t have too much of a test until the postseason, since the Bengals didn’t play any out-of-state competition this spring. Injuries bothered them at times, but they got the lineup back together for the playoffs.
“I had five of my seniors that had injuries,” Piersma said. “They nursed sore knees and bad ankles, but they made it back.”
Next season will be more difficult as he loses nine of his 16 players. But the Bengals will be ready to go.
MID-ATLANTIC
Century (Md.) coach Rose Pentz walked away from her job in a manner that would make any coach jealous.
Pentz stepped down after the Knights rolled to a 14-7 victory over North Harford in the Class 3A-2A state championship last week.
That left her with a record of 128-13 in eight varsity seasons at Century (she also coached one JV when the school opened the year before) plus five state titles. The Knights also made the finals two other times.
But Pentz is leaving to be able to watch her daughter, Kaitlin, the Century goalie, when she goes to play for Robert Morris starting next year. She and her husband, Randy, also watch their son, Ryan, who will be a senior defensive back at Wagner.
If she coaches, Pentz said, she would have a tougher time doing both.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while leading up to this year,” Pentz said. “I had already pretty much made up my mind earlier this year. While it was a tough decision for me, I know it’s the right decision.”
Pentz enjoyed this year’s team because of its cohesiveness. Last year, Century had big-name players like Katie Schwarzmann (Maryland), the ACC Rookie of the Year who won the national title last weekend, but this year’s group played together as one all the time.
“We didn’t have pressure this year,” Pentz said. “We were able to play with each other. Everyone was able to contribute. Everyone knew their roles."
Angels Flister, Alex Mercer and Jill Remenapp led the way on offense as the Knights rolled to the title. Kaitlin Pentz was the starting goalie for three years—and now she and mom move on to Robert Morris.
“I want to be there to support her and be a part of her life as she moves on,” Pentz said.
WEST
Oregon City won its second consecutive state title with a 15-6 win over Wilson recently.
Westsidelax.com reported that Oregon City captured the Oregon Girls Lacrosse Association state title thanks to a big game from Tessa Keuler. She finished with a goal plus five assists for six points.
Shelly Bohrer and Holly Cisneros also gave the offense a spark with four-goal, one-assist efforts as the Pioneers finished with an 18-4 record.
What was even more impressive is that they lost a number of key players from last year’s title game. Westsidelax.com reported that Oregon City actually graduated seven seniors from the 2009 title team – but that didn’t seem to hurt the Pioneers much.
NORTHEAST
A little balance went a long way as South Hadley edged East Longmeadow, 13-12, in a first-round Western Masschusetts playoff game last week.
Masslive.com reported that South Hadley finished with five players ended up with at least three points in the game. Nora McDonough led the way with five points on two goals and three assists.
But Lauren Barthlette, Tessa Holmes, Katie Tierney and Abbey Lemanski all finished with three points.
The offense was needed because East Longmeadow got plenty of punch from Kelsey Rahilly and Liane Moses.
Rahilly got four goals and four assists for a game-high eight points. Moses helped with five goals and one assist for six points.
MIDWEST
Grace Dooley's back-to-back goals midway through the second half sparked Loyola to an 18-11 win over New Trier in the Illinois High School Women's Lacrosse Association championship game. The Ramblers repeated as state champions.
"After we won state last year, we were, like, 'We've got to do it again,'" Notre Dame-bound Dooley told the Evanston Review. "We trained all (last summer) and we've trained ever since."
New Trier advanced to final with an easy 23-7 rout of Montini Catholic.
Gwen Gummersall scored six first-half goals to lead the way. Molly Quirke helped with three goals and five assists, and Janie Gion (two goals, five assists) also played a big role in the victory.
The Trevians finished 19-4-.
Loyola was an easy 17-3 winner over Hinsdale Central in the other semifinal. The Ramblers raced out to a 12-2 halftime lead and didn’t have much trouble. They finished 24-1.
