THE GAZETTE
Page B-2
SCORING
Continued from Page B-1 goals. B-CC has 19 players with at least one goal and no one with more than six. Damascus senior midfielder Steph Cox is currently the county’s leading scorer with 18 goals but the Swarmin’ Hornets have outscored their opponents 64-5 and still have 15 players with at least one goal. Even defending Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion Our Lady of Good Counsel lacks one particular scorer with 12 contributors and none with more than 12 goals — in 2011 two Falcons scored 22plus goals. “The trend [of more balanced scoring] is definitely there,” said Churchill coach Haroot Hakopian, who has been coaching in the county for two decades. In those times you had solid players and one outstanding player take it upon themselves to score. Now
you have several teams across the county with girls with six to 10 scorers. That means when they get the opportunity to finish, they’re finishing.” The county is in no shortage of star power capable of peppering the stat sheet. If Whitman midfielder Aliza Wolfe played in the front field and put more emphasis just on scoring, Herbert and Hakopian agreed, her numbers could sky rocket. Though more comfortable in the set-up role, Hakopian said B-CC senior and Colgate University recruit Eliza Doll has the ability to take over games in a similar manner. The recent trend has also been boosted by the type of player being developed at a young age, Hakopian said, and the brand of soccer it enables high school teams to employ. Players are more versatilethesedaysthantheywere 10 to 15 years ago, Hakopian said, and can play various roles on the field depending on where they’re
needed. Teams are generally able to efficiently execute a prettier, more possession style of soccer that lends itself to more balance among scoring options, coaches agreed. Kurtz joked after the Barons’ 2-1 win over Whitman earlier this month that he would pay to have the high-scoring numbers he was accustomed to in the mid-2000s — one-goal decisions can be stressful — but the recent lack of dominant scoring signifies a new level of competition in Montgomery County girls’ soccer. “You don’t see those players anymore who are ripping home 25 goals,” Kurtz said. “Hannah Cooper scored 18 goals for us four years in a row, I’d be paying her if she did that for us now. But the good thing is we’re getting it from a lot of different players.” jbeekman@gazette.net
BOOKS
Continued from Page B-1 doing, which is score.” Ndiaye, who appeared softspoken and thoughtful during Monday’s practice, deflected the praise to his teammates. He’s made 15 starts and appeared in 19 games this fall. “I owe it all to them and coach because they make sure I’m in the right place and their skills are amazing. I mean, Nick Castro has assisted on half of my goals,” Ndiaye said. “The atmosphere is just amazing here and we have a lot of diverse cultures, but we all hang out, call each other and stay together as a team.” The 20-year-old freshman, who lives in Silver Spring, has been enjoying his time immersing himself in American culture. His favorite thing is all of the fast food establishments. “The food is the best here,” Ndiaye said. “McDonalds, Chipotle, Burger King — I try everything.” Ndiaye, who is studying business and economics, moved to the United States primarily for education, but said he couldn’t give up his favorite sport. “It was a little tough to move, but the education system is so much better here than back
HEALTHY
Continued from Page B-1 this year. “It’s like I’m making up for lost time,” Burlew said. “I’ve got to be happy with what I’ve done, but the job’s not over yet. I’d be happywithmakingittotheWCAC championship.” The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference soccer playoffs began on Tuesday. And while the Falcons are likely underdogs behind DeMatha, Gonzaga and Paul VI — the three teams that beat them this season — Burlew and second-year coach Dylan Dempsey are confident this team has a run in it. “We’re way more competitive than we were last year,” Dempsey said. “Even though we’re not blowing teams out, I’m pleased with the way things are coming along.” Burlew, who called his gamewinner against Archbishop Spalding in the first match of the season
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 o
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/FOR THE GAZETTE
Our Lady of Good Council High School’s field hockey team raises the championship trophy after beating Holy Cross. 2-1 in overtime, to win the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship Thursday at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Good Counsel ends Holy Cross’s streak Holton-Arms wins ninth ISL tennis title in 10 years n
Our Lady of Good Counsel field hockey coach Theda Bagdon had a simple message for her players prior to Thursday night’s Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game, the fifth straight year the Falcons matched up with Academy of the Holy Cross in the season finale.
PREP NOTEBOOK BY GAZETTE STAFF GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Gabriel Ndiaye (right) practices with the Montgomery College men’s soccer team Monday at the campus in Rockville. home,” he said. “I’ve loved playing soccer since I was little — you ask for soccer balls for Christmas every year back home — but the education is my first goal. Montgomery College is averaging 6.2 goals per game with a .729 shot percentage while allowing just 0.9 goals per game. The Raptors, who don’t feature much height, are extremely technical, focused on ball control and make quick passes and swift movements.
“We don’t like the ball in the air a lot,” Braz said with a laugh and smile. Sophomore center back and Sherwood graduate Sergio Navarrete agreed. “It’s a lot of team play. The line between starters and the reserves is becoming more and more blurred,” he said. “The level of play is great.”
his most memorable goal to date, does the bulk of his scoring on off-ball runs. He and sophomore Dominic-Maximilian Duncan work combos well with one another, Dempsey said. “He definitely gets the hard goals,” Dempsey said. “He definitely earns every single one of them. He gets the ball in wide areas, makes defenders miss and he’s very smooth on the ball, very elusive. It’s fortunate that he’s been healthy.” For a long time, he wasn’t. In the second game of his sophomore season, Burlew broke his ankle against Winston Churchill. That rendered him unable to play for the rest of the year. After an arduous recovery process, the speedy striker felt ready to make amends for missing all of 2011 by starting strong for his junior season. Two weeks before the first game, however, Burlew found out he had a stress fracture in his hip. He had been playing through it for roughly four months and it went undiscovered until he had
an MRI before the season. For the second consecutive year, an injury forced Burlew to the sidelines. “I just spent a lot of time out, watching my team play. I guess it made me hungry,” said Burlew, who started playing soccer and football when he was 5 because he wanted to be like his brother. “I wanted to take part in it and wanted to make a difference to my school and my community.” Balancing his roles between soccer and football can be challenging. As soon as soccer practice ends, he heads over to the football field and then usually returns home at around 7:30 p.m. But what’s most noticeable for Burlew is juxtaposing the stature of the football team — consistently elite and nationally-recognized — with that of the soccer team, a program that hopes to get there sooner than later. “There’s going to be a school that kind of lucks out on getting him,” Dempsey said.
kzakour@gazette.net
“Everybody has to try just a little bit harder, do just a little bit better, think just a little deeper, work just a little longer,” she said. It’s former gymnast Mary Lou Retton’s quote, and from thelooksofhowthegameturned out, with Good Counsel shedding the runner-up moniker that has haunted it for the past half decade, it did just the trick. When the Tartans tied it up 1-1 in the second half, they dug just a little deeper, holding on to extend the game to overtime. When Holy Cross fired in 12 shots on goalie Caroline Campbell, the keeper tried just a little bit harder. And when Elaine McCabe deked Holy Cross goalie Kathleen Mauck with 2 minutes, 58 seconds remaining in overtime, Good Counsel rose just one notch higher. “I told them, I said, ‘Every single time you feel one ounce of pulling back, think I have to work a little harder, I have to think a little deeper,’” Bagdon said. “The chemistry and the heart of this team, and the undying support for each other, there’s no girl — it’s awesome. There’s no division.” The victory has been a long time coming for Good Counsel. Bagdon watched her team relinquish a 2-0 second-half lead last year to lose 3-2 in overtime, and a player was sent off during the extra period, making it seven on six. The 2009 championship went to extra minutes as well, and that one ended in a 1-0 overtime victory in Holy Cross’s favor. Two years later, the title was decided by another one-goal margin, a 2-1 Tartans victory. “I am so happy right now,” Campbell said. “We have been
to so many championships and we have worked so hard in the off-season and regular season and this team is so close and we wanted it so badly. We put it all on the field and we’re so happy.” Just down the road at James H. Blake there was another postseason tilt providing some free field hockey. The Bengals, hosting Springbrook, went to overtime before knocking in the game-winner. They advanced to top-seeded Sherwood on Monday night (results came in after deadline). In the round previous, in which Col. Zadok Magruder and Gaithersburg were the lone game in the 4A West, the Trojans took two additional frames to finally top the Colonels. No. 1 seeded Quince Orchard proceeded to knock them out in the ensuing round, 5-0. While Stone Ridge’s 2-1 victory over St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes onThursdaywasn’tquitethewatershed win being had by Good Counsel, it was similar in nature. The Saints are the owners of 10 of the past 11 Independent School League titles, and though it was only a regular season matchup, the win certainly raised an eyebrowortwo,especiallywithplayoffs just a week away.
Cross country A pair of Good Counsel runners had a banner day Saturday in the WCAC cross country championships at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, Va. Sophomore Megan Crilly took home the girls’ individual championship by running the course in a time of 20:55.06, while senior Collin Crilly won the boys’ race with a time of 16:27.57. Overall, Good Counsel’s girls finished second at the meet with 47 points, seven behind Bishop O’Connell as Cosette Riley (21:13) finished fourth and Cassidy Burke (21:15) placed fifth, The Falcons boys won the team title by two points over Gonzaga, as they had five runners finish in the top 12 (Crilly, Jack Wavering, Tyler Richards, Matt Lopez, Kevin McGivern). Even the two runners who didn’t score performed remarkably well as Miguel Alonso and Jeff Moxley finished 16th and 17th, respectively.
Tennis Holton-Arms School junior No. 1 singles player Lilly Lynham might not have physically won her match against Bullis’ Ines Vias in Thursday’s seasonending Independent School League “AA” Division tournament final but her just being on the court at Madeira (Virginia) was vital to Holton’s ninth title in 10 years. Lynham was rather sick Thursday but this year’s ISL tournament took on a new structure — dual matches rather than separate brackets per position. If Lynham sat out Thursday’s final, everyone down the Panthers’ ladder would have to move up a spot. Holton, which defeated St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes (6-1) and National Cathedral School (4-3) in the first and second rounds won the final, 5-2 Thursday. “I was very tempted not to play [Lynham] because she was in pain but she asked me to play in the last match so she played at her request, not mine,” Holton coach Yann Auzoux said. “In this particular format, that makes a big difference. Last year it wouldn’t have made a big difference because we probably would’ve been in good position in every other position.” Bullis won the top two singles courts — last year’s ISL No. 1 singles champion Vias avenged a regular-season loss to Lynham with a win Thursday — but Holton won third and fourth singles and swept the doubles. Maya Das’ win at No. 3 singles Thursday capped an undefeated 2013. Jillian Lawler won at No. 4. Holton’s No. 1 doubles team consisted of Karsyn Lawler and Elise Lovett and Susan Darvishi and Sophie Gary won on the second doubles court. The team’s only two seniors, Lauren Di Franco and Lauren Ahn won the third doubles match. Auzoux credits Holton’s dominance of the league the past decade with the programs that have been implemented for younger athletes at the school, helping prepare them to feed into the varsity squad. “I think what we’ve managed to do is establish a good system for the girls to go through,” Auzoux said.
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