Severna Park turns back Towson, captures 3A girls’ lacrosse title

Severna Park 12, Towson 8

Severna Park attack Alyssa Chung (19) celebrates one of her three goals during the Falcons' win over Towson for the Maryland 3A girls' lacrosse championship. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — When Towson cut Severna Park’s lead to three early in the second half of the Maryland 3A girls’ lacrosse championship, the Falcons knew they couldn’t let up.

Severna Park squandered a late lead against Marriotts Ridge in last year’s title game. It rallied from a similar deficit in Friday’s semifinal against Westminster. So the Falcons kept pushing and stayed in control for a 12-8 win on Thursday at Stevenson University.

“Figuratively, we ran like someone was chasing us,” said junior attacker Alyssa Chung, who scored three goals. “We just had to keep scoring over and over again.”

The Falcons’ first state title since 2019 was the 15th in program history, tying Mount Hebron for the most in the state. Severna Park (17-3) hasn’t lost since it fell to Spalding on April 12, ending its season on a 12-game winning streak.

Severna Park scored the contest’s first six goals over roughly eight minutes.

Towson (14-2), whose only other loss came to 4A champion Broadneck, saw its season end in its first state title game since 1997.

“We just wanted to play like we knew how to play right off the bat,” said Falcons senior attacker Charlotte Diez, who scored three goals.

Severna Park held a 9-3 lead at halftime and started drawing out its offensive possessions to milk the clock. That was when the Generals, who had netted at least 11 goals in each of their games entering the final, cut the deficit and made it 9-6 a few minutes into the second half.

Chung, the Falcons’ leading goal scorer with 74 goals, flew down the turf and buried a shot to snap that run. Freshman midfielder Maria Bragg added another, and the Falcons didn’t look back.

Severna Park spent time working on a variety of individual drills since its narrow victory over Westminster and studied tape on its opponent to get a sense of where the ball would be placed.

“Defensively, I mean, could not have asked our defense to play better,” Coach Annie Houghton said. “We focused on staying low, playing the body, moving the feet and just not getting fouls. And I think there were some great defensive stops that were huge momentum changers.”

Towson tightened its defense in the second half but could never draw close enough to threaten the Falcons.

“[Severna Park] played very well in the first half,” Towson Coach Taylor Carhart said. “Second half I think we limited them, but we just didn’t limit them as soon as we could.”