BALTIMORE, April 16 -- Mount Hebron junior midfielder Megan Bosica wasn't going to let Roland Park ruin her prom.
"We knew this was going to be a big day for us," she said. "If we wouldn't have won, I don't know how much fun we'd have at prom."
Bosica scored a game-high six goals in a 14-9 victory for the top-ranked Vikings on Saturday morning, and ensured that her team would be in a good mood for the evening festivities.
"This wasn't the biggest event of our day, but it was the biggest event of our morning," Bosica said of the victory at Johns Hopkins University's Homewood Field. "Now we can all have fun at the prom."
Sophomore midfielder Jacqueline Giles added four goals and sophomore attack Katie Reckart and senior attack Meg Taylor scored two apiece as Mount Hebron improved to 6-0 against the struggling Reds (2-7). It was the Vikings 66th consecutive victory, dating from 2001.
Mount Hebron, which took an 8-4 lead in the first half but only led 8-6 at intermission, broke the game open early in the second half. The Vikings scored five straight goals to extend their lead to 13-6 with 9 minutes 12 seconds remaining.
The Vikings' performance was vastly different from their effort against the Reds last year, when they had to rally for an 8-7 victory.
"Last year, even though we won, we didn't feel like we played our best and we used that as motivation this year because we didn't want to feel that way again," Bosica said. "All week we just focused on playing our best."
Roland Park kept the game close early, scoring on six of its first seven shots. That prompted Mount Hebron Coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland to insert junior goalie Karen Nicolaus, who saved six of eight shots in the second half -- including two eight-meter free-positions.
"Karen was phenomenal in the way she came in and made some big stops right away," said Kuhl-McClelland. "That was a big reason why we were able to take control."
The Vikings will begin preparing Monday for one of their toughest weeks of the season. Mount Hebron plays Hammond on Tuesday and on Saturday will host its Spring Tournament, where it will play No. 2 St. Stephen's/St. Agnes -- the last team to beat the Vikings -- at 10 a.m. on Saturday. St. Mary's-Annapolis plays Great Valley (Pa.) at 11:30, with the consolation and championship games slated for 1:30 and 3 p.m.
"It only gets bigger from here," Kuhl-McClelland said. "But our team looks forward to playing big games."
