WCAC Girls' Lacrosse Championship
Swarthout Delivers The Knockout Blow
Good Counsel 11, Bishop Ireton 8
Bishop Ireton's Claire Banta tries to catch Good Cousel's Mary Swarthout.
(By Mark Gail -- The Washington Post)
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008; Page E10
After a few nice moves created the opening, Good Counsel senior Mary Swarthout headed toward the goal yesterday, intent on giving her team a little more late cushion in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference girls' lacrosse final against Bishop Ireton.
But before Swarthout could shoot, she got decked.
"I had a lot of motivation since it was my last game here for the Falcons," said Swarthout, who needed a few seconds before she could get up. "It was pretty emotional, so I wasn't going to let that stop me."
Less than a minute later, Swarthout scored to put Good Counsel up by three for the first time in what became an 11-8 victory at Ludwig Field on the University of Maryland's campus.
That kind of leadership by example is something Swarthout displayed all season, enabling a young team -- 16 of the Falcons' 24 players were freshmen or sophomores -- to win the school's fifth straight WCAC title.
"Mary is the most amazing lacrosse player I've ever seen," said freshman Kelly Lechner, who scored three goals. "She never gives up when she gets down. She gets right back up, she goes back in and she's always encouraging."
Bishop Ireton (16-4), which was led by sophomore Janet Tela's three goals, has lost its past seven games against Good Counsel (15-6) and has not beaten the Falcons since 2003.
That streak appeared to be in jeopardy when the Ireton jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 5-1, but Swarthout scored twice to start a 5-0 Falcons run in the final 10 minutes of the first half.
After Bishop Ireton tied the score early in the second half, Swarthout struck again. The Falcons never relinquished the lead.
"She's a tremendous competitor," Good Counsel Coach Mike Haight said of Swarthout, who was named the league's player of the year and had four goals. "And she took the game over when she needed to."
In addition to Lechner, freshman Brigid Smith (two goals) and sophomores Kelsey Conway (one goal) and Molly Shawhan (who controlled several second-half faceoffs) had strong games.
"The freshmen and the sophomores grew up a lot this year, based on what the juniors and seniors taught them," Haight said.
