Leonardtown girls fall to Broadneck in semis

Lacrosse team outscored 11-1 in opening half of contest

Friday, May 16, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Leonardtown’s Shannon Bonnel loses the ball as she’s checked by Broadneck’s Brigitte Strother, left, and Stephanie Steinweg. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Broadneck’s (13-3) 19 goals were 10 more than the Raiders allowed in one game all season, and Leonardtown’s (14-2) three scores tied a season low.

‘‘They’re a great team,” said Leonardtown head coach Mike Denny. ‘‘We got beat by a better team, period. They’re faster, they have a lot of talent and they execute extremely well.”

Broadneck was carried by a big first half when it seemed nearly unstoppable. Broadneck scored five goals in the first five minutes of the match and finished the first half up 11-1.

‘‘I think they played well,” said Broadneck head coach Karen Tengwall of her team. ‘‘We set some goals in the beginning of the game, and in the first half we didn’t execute as well. But in the second half, we did a nice job of putting those goals together and finishing them.”

Starring for the Bruins was senior Karri Ellen Johnson, who finished with four goals and three assists in the first half alone, contributing to seven of her team’s 11 first-half goals.

‘‘It definitely was a team effort,” said Johnson, who has signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Maryland in the fall. ‘‘We came in here fired up. It was a long bus ride, two hours to come here to play. We knew we needed to come in from the bus ride and not be lackadaisical.”

Both the Leonardtown offense and defense struggled all night. The Raiders finished with only three goals, two by senior Courtney Williams.

Both of Williams’ goals came in the second half and, like Shannon Bonnel’s first-half score, came at a time when the game was well out of reach.

‘‘We did well in SMAC, undefeated, the first time for Leonardtown, a good thing to go out on,” said Williams, the first-ever four-year varsity player in Leonardtown girls lacrosse history according to Denny. ‘‘But they’re a good team –– we knew it was going to be a hard game.”

Both Denny and his players said the game came down to Broadneck’s speed and aggressiveness, two things the Raiders weren’t able to match.

‘‘They’re used to playing at a much faster pace game and a much more aggressive game all the time,” said Denny. ‘‘They’re playing against a [tougher schedule] all season long. I think that helps them for sure.”

The Raiders’ attempt to match Broadneck in pace and intensity led to four uncharacteristic yellow card penalties, two in the first two minutes of the game. Denny said the speed of the game was something his team was unaccustomed to and said the penalties were a by-product of the game’s pace.

‘‘It’s not our nature,” said Denny. ‘‘We knew we had to be more aggressive in this game –– it didn’t really matter, but we knew we had to be more aggressive ... there was nothing malicious, there was no attempt at doing anything to harm anybody. It was just the movement of the game.”

Leonardtown also pointed to Broadneck’s older youth league and tougher conference as a factor in the game. The Bruins’ more established youth league has supplied them with more experienced players and those players have played stiffer competition throughout the season, adding even more experience the Raiders simply couldn’t counter.

‘‘On one hand, I really compliment our youth league program,” said Denny, who thinks the county’s youth leagues will eventually come to rival that of other more established leagues. ‘‘That’s what’s helping us get to where we are right now. But their program has been around for a long time. It’s very advanced.”