Quince Orchard Wins on a Gimme

Christie Shell is ecstatic after knocking in the game-winner. "This is it, we got it," Shell thought just before scoring. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

Stifled all evening by Eleanor Roosevelt's staunch defense and all-American goalkeeper Wendy Balogun, Quince Orchard had gone two halves and almost two overtimes of its Maryland 4A state semifinal without threatening to score. So when Cougars junior Christie Shell found herself open with nothing but unguarded net 10 yards in front of her, her mind raced.

"This is it, we got it," she later recalled thinking. "If I miss this, my teammates are going to kill me."

Instead, they mobbed her.

Shell took advantage of a Roosevelt miscue and tapped the ball into the open net, giving Quince Orchard a dramatic 1-0 victory in double overtime last night in Potomac and a berth in the state championship game Saturday at UMBC. The Cougars (15-3) will play Leonardtown, which beat Perry Hall, 2-1, in the other semifinal.

Roosevelt (17-2), the 4A South Region champion, dominated for much of the game but was foiled time and again by the crossbar and post, off of which four or five Raiders shots bounded. With 4 minutes 38 seconds remaining, the game appeared destined for a penalty kick shootout when Balogun and senior sweeper Mary Raffael miscommunicated, leaving Shell one-on-one against Balogun for a free ball 20 yards out.

Both players kicked the ball at the same time. Shell got the better of the exchange, as the ball trickled past Balogun, leaving Shell with a full head of steam and a wide open goal before her.

"Obviously, you don't want to go to penalty kicks against Wendy," Quince Orchard Coach Peg Keiller said. "If we don't sprint after that last ball, maybe we don't win the game."

In the late semifinal with the score tied at 1 five minutes into the second half, freshman Taeler Errington headed the ball into the net off of a corner kick by junior Kaitlin Devine (one goal, one assist) for what turned out to be the winner.

East Region champion Leonardtown (16-1-1), which allowed its first goal in six games, will play for its second state championship. The Raiders won the 3A title in 1998.

Quince Orchard 1, Eleanor Roosevelt 0 Leonardtown 2, Perry Hall 1 One to Go: Quince Orchard is one win from its second state crown. The Cougars won in 2002 under Peg Keiller. Roosevelt, meantime, was vying for its second title in four years. Wendy Balogun and three other current seniors were on the team that won it in 2003. Short-handed: In the later semifinal, Leonardtown was without its best player in senior forward Kassie Martin, who sprained her MCL in a 1-0 regional final win over Meade.