It's rare that a lacrosse team needs to make second-half adjustments after building a five-goal lead in the first half, but such was the case yesterday for the No. 3 Broadneck girls' lacrosse team in its game against Annapolis.
The visiting Bruins huddled up at halftime and, rather than discuss what they needed to continue doing, they talked about what they needed to fix. The result was a 19-6 victory in which Broadneck held its Anne Arundel County rival to one second-half goal.
"We pointed out a couple of things that needed to change," Broadneck Coach Karen Tengwall said. "Defensively, we weren't playing our team defense. Offensively, we wanted better shot selection. Really, when we made our second-half changes, it was more along the lines of playing more as a team."
That has been the key to Broadneck's success this season: recognizing its own vulnerability before opponents do. In the end, the Bruins turned a 10-5 halftime lead into another complete victory. Junior Ali Flury led Broadneck with six goals, freshman Kari-Ellen Johnson scored four times and senior Natasha Davies added three goals.
The Bruins (8-1, 7-0) scored on all but two shots on goal in the second half, a significant improvement from the first half, when Annapolis goalkeeper Casey Lean made six saves. Broadneck goalie Erika Webb did her part, stopping seven shots in the second half on her way to 10 saves for the game.
Annapolis (7-3, 6-2) came out strong, scoring on its first two shots of the game -- first by senior Cara Cerone and then by junior Becky Greene -- to grab a 2-0 lead less than two minutes in. But Broadneck regrouped, striking back with goals from Davies, Flury and Johnson to take a 3-2 advantage.
"We kind of came into the game complacent, thinking it wasn't going to be too hard, but after those first two goals we realized we had to step it up," Flury said.
In the boys' game, No. 2 Broadneck defeated Annapolis, 11-9. Brendan O'Leary led the Bruins (9-1, 7-1) with three goals. Eric Boyle and Mike Poerstal had two goals apiece for Annapolis (8-2, 5-2).
The game was delayed more than 30 minutes in the second quarter when Broadneck senior Steve Fritsch was injured and taken away from the field on a stretcher. Team officials did not disclose the nature of the injury nor where Fritsch was taken for treatment.
