St. Timothy’s girls lacrosse completes unbeaten season with 22-10 win over AACS in IAAM C Conference final
St. Timothy’s freshman Ryan Rodgers said her team’s newfound success this season has been the direct result of its dominance on the draw.
Early this season, St. Tim’s struggled to consistently gain control. As the speedy midfielder showed on Saturday, however, her team has managed to figure it out.
Taking the majority of draws in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference final, Rodgers time and again helped give her team the ball, then played a major role in turning possessions into goals in a 22-10 win over Annapolis Area Christian School at USA Lacrosse in Sparks.
“In our [early] games we had difficulty with the draw,” Rodgers said. “But once we were able to figure out the draw … we definitely saw a turning tide.”
Rodgers finished with five goals and an assist, to go along with four goals each from sophomore Nyla Behram and junior Makenna Burnett, as St. Tim’s broke out to an early five-goal lead and never looked back on the way to its first-ever lacrosse championship.
Tied at 1 early, St. Timothy’s charged ahead with the next five goals and eight of nine over a span of 11 minutes. Rodgers dominated the draw, helping her team win seven of the first nine to start the game.
St. Tim’s, which doesn’t have a single senior on its roster, completed an 11-0 season in which it outscored opponents, 205-57, and never won by fewer than nine goals. All that after going just 29-29-1 over the past five seasons.
“Just a lot of younger players stepping up to the plate and good team chemistry,” co-coach Natalie Karlen said. “I think they worked really hard to get there. Really a whole new program. New coaching staff, a lot of new players … following the older players’ lead.”
To finish its story, St. Timothy’s first had to find a way to stop Eagles scoring leader Skylar Sensenbrenner, who scored seven in the teams’ previous matchup and also tallied 12 and 10 in recent games.
“She was definitely their biggest threat,” Rodgers said. “We focused on locking her down and getting the ball away from her. We wanted to be hyper aware of [Sensenbrenner], put some of our better defenders on her and just slide early to her.”
Karlen and co-coach Kylee Frazier used a mixure of Rodgers, Burnett and junior Ava Basham on the junior, who finished with five goals, though only two in the first half when St. Tim’s was buidling its lead.
“We knew how stong [Sensenbrenner] was,” Rodgers said, “and we knew that if we underestimated them we could get kicked in the butt.”
IAAM C Conference Final
St. Timothy’s 22, AACS 10
Goals: A-S. Sensenbrenner 5, Summa 3, Roush 2; ST-Rodgers 5, Burnett 4, Behram 4, Drake 3, Caffrey 2, Mullin 2, Smith 2. Assists: A-S. Sensenbrenner, Summa; ST-Behram, Rodgers. Saves: A-Tepeu Rodriguez 5; ST-Scarlato 3. Half: St. Timothy’y, 11-4.