The Crofton Middie-A girls’ lacrosse team did just about everything right this season.
The fifth- and sixth-graders rolled through the regular season with a 7-1-1 record and rolled to three more victories in the playoffs, finishing with a 9-7 victory over Broadneck for the Anne Arundel County title.
In fact, nine seemed to be the magic number for Crofton as that was the number of goals the team scored in each of its three playoff wins.
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The first playoff game was a 9-5 victory over nearby GORC in the quarterfinals.
After that came a wild 9-8 victory over Davidsonville in the semifinals. Crofton scored in the final 30 seconds to snap an 8-8 tie.
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Crofton didn’t appear in any trouble early as it rolled to a 5-0 lead before Davidsonville battled back to tie it. Then came Broadneck in a finals that had some meaning for Crofton.
The reason? Broadneck was the only team that beat Crofton this season, and it had some revenge on the mind. That’s probably one reason Crofton jumped out to a big six-goal lead at the break.
But Broadneck wasn’t done just yet. It kept battling and eventually cut the lead to two goals. However, Crofton bent but didn’t break and held on for the 9-7 victory.
“This was a great group of young ladies who set a goal for themselves and achieved it,” said coach Todd Leavitt. “It was a pleasure for me and assistant coach John Wagner to work with them, and we are very proud of what they accomplished for themselves and Crofton.”
On offense, Crofton got help from McKenzie Jackson, Alli Gigliotti, Madeline Cloyd and Riley Raterry-Lee. The midfield, consisting of Kendall Leonard, Grace Quinn, Payton Kenny, Lindsay Kohlmann, Caroline Kerr and Brianna Gulakowski, played well.
The defense, led by Callie Simpson-Potter, Mackenzie Kolesar, Colleen Wagner, Colleen Roy and Olivia Laabs, gave goalie Hanna Ramsey plenty of support, and Ramsey played well.