After Securing County Threepeat, Falcon Girls Eye State Playoffs

All season long, teams have tried to defend against the Severna Park girls soccer team, hold out until halftime, and have a crack in the second half.

So far, it hasn’t worked.

South River tried the opposite in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools county championship game on October 18. Different approach, same result.

The Falcons scored three goals in eight minutes either side of halftime and emerged with a 4-0 win to claim their third successive county championship.

They opened the scoring when a corner aimed for Maria Bragg sailed over her head and connected with freshman midfielder Carlee Scott instead. She was in the right place at the right time to direct her header looping over the keeper and into the net.

“I closed my eyes and hoped for the best and just kept my head there,” Scott said. “I thought it went over, and then everyone started screaming and I was like, ‘Wait, did it go in?’”

Bragg scored the second and third goals either side of halftime, the first on some interplay and the second on a through ball from Ava Scott that sent Bragg off in a footrace she would lose against very few athletes.

That goal finally broke South River’s resistance and allowed the Falcons to make another statement victory.

“Ava gave me a perfect ball and I felt like I needed to get to it. Just wanted to finish it for the team,” Bragg said. “They came out super strong and aggressive, and it took us a little while to get in our groove. We told ourselves, ‘We can make a statement with this if we just focus on ourselves and play our game.’”

Addison Murphy added the fourth goal later on to settle the scoring. It was also Murphy who opened the scoring in the Falcons’ region semifinal game against Arundel, which put Severna Park on the cusp of a third successive state tournament appearance.

The teams played to a goalless first half, but Bragg crossed a ball in from the left and Murphy was first to it to fire high and into the net to open the scoring.

“I just knew that it was tied and I had to make a difference. I saw the chance and checked to the ball, took the shot and it went in,” Murphy said. “We were slow at the start, but we picked it up in the second half and it shows. We work together really well. (Other teams) always give their best effort toward us, but as a team we’re ready for everything, no matter what a team puts to us.”

The Falcons, who have conceded just once all season in their 13 wins thus far, are pushing for one more run with this senior class.

They stand four games from their third straight state championship, which could be the cherry on top to a magical three-year run.

“We don’t really talk about the goal at the end of the season. We’re trying to build each game to put ourselves in position to be playing at the end of the year,” said Severna Park girls soccer head coach Rick Stimpson. “We have a lot of girls that were here last year, so they’re able to draw from that experience, and they’ve stepped into the roles they’ve been given and flourished. It gets harder each year because you get a bigger target on your back, but they’ve risen to the challenge.”