First Time For Everything: Severna Park Girls Win JV County Championship

Let the history books show: Severna Park produced the first Anne Arundel County JV girls soccer championship team.

The Falcons (12-0) achieved that distinction with a thrilling 2-1 victory over Broadneck at Chesapeake High School on October 23, getting a double-overtime goal from Kara Keaton to finish the season undefeated and secure the title in the first-ever one-game championship the county has played for JV girls soccer.

Severna Park sophomore Sydney Park said the Falcons were excited to have an extra chance to cement their status as true champs.

“I’m so happy that we had this to work for,” said Park. “We started slow, but during the end we really came together and played our hearts out to get that last goal in overtime.”

Broadneck looked to avenge a 3-0 loss to Severna Park earlier this season when they took a 1-0 lead early in the second half on a goal by Brenna Levin.

With five minutes left in the game, Severna Park’s Reagan Clark scored off an assist from Emersyn Kelter to tie the game at 1-1.

“It was pretty exciting because we were undefeated [coming in], and we played them before, and they were a good team,” said Clark. “It was kind of scary coming in because we knew they would be pretty good. We started off a little slow, but we figured it out, and it feels so good. It’s a good group of girls.”

After a scoreless first overtime period, Keaton headed home a corner kick by Danielle Engelfried two minutes into the second overtime period to win the game.

Mallori Scheimreif made six saves for Severna Park, including several at close range to keep the Falcons’ title hopes alive.

The JV Falcons are Keaton, Park, Clark, Kelter, Engelfried, Scheimreif, Lily McCulloch, Bella Glady, Sophie Krejci, Lea Titchener, Kenzie Rice, Megan Bast, Molly Frueh, Julia DiMarsico, Rebecca Cremmins, Lucy O’Brien, Riley Edwards, Mackenzie Young, Courtney Youngwood, Ashley Faini and Kennedy Wolfe. They are coached by Pat Kelly and Eilish Kelly.

The county decided to have the JV championship soccer games after piloting JV county championship basketball events last season.

“We feel these events further highlight the extracurricular programming offered in our school system and provide our most important stakeholders — students — an opportunity to be showcased in a special way,” said AACPS Athletics Coordinator Clayton Culp.

Coach Pat Kelly was proud to see the Falcons grow throughout the fall and punctuate their season.

“I’m very proud of the girls,” said Kelly. “They conducted themselves very well both on and off the pitch. They worked hard throughout the season and improved tremendously as a result.”

Cremmins said the Falcons met their own high standards to own a piece of history.

“I’m proud of our team because the last year we weren’t undefeated, so we kind of broke that bad spell and we were undefeated throughout the whole season,” said Cremmins. “It’s cool that we won the first JV county championship, because they’re going to know that Severna Park won the first one.”