County lines crossed during special lacrosse title win By JAKE LINGER Sports Editor
Crossing county lines when it comes to certain activities can be illegal. But if Bowie Boys and Girls Club and Crofton Athletic Council had remained on their respective sides of the border, 12 youth girls lacrosse players would not have experienced a moment that will never be forgotten.
The unlikely chain of events was set in motion at the beginning of the 2008 lacrosse season. First-year BBGC girls lacrosse coach Carolyn Noe - a Crofton native - was approached by CAC girls coach Dave Mackintosh - a Bowie native - in hopes that the teams could join for a few preseason practices and scrimmages. Noe saw the opportunity for her Level B Juniors to attain valuable experience playing against the Level A CAC team. And learning from a veteran coach of many years with the same club was not bad either.
"It was really good to scrimmage a more experienced team," said Noe, who served as an assistant coach for the 2007 BBGC Middies. "Dave (Mackintosh) gave me some great pointers. It was a good experience for me and my girls"
Any assistance Noe could obtain was welcome as she was the sole coach for her Juniors, though she credited team parents as well as BBGC girls lacrosse commissioner Randy Boileau, for stepping up when things looked like they could get out of control. The Juniors went 6-2 in the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs during the Southern Maryland Youth Lacrosse Association season.
Though Noe grew up in Crofton, she did attend St. Pius X and was somewhat familiar with BBGC when she began her coaching career more than a year ago. That little bit of familiarity went a long way. "I actually know the girls game," said Noe, the former Anne Arundel Community College lacrosse team member, "but a lot of it is trial and error."
The BBGC coach met up again with Mackintosh during the Lightning Lax tournament. BBGC had already entered - and paid for - the Max Lax tournament in Pikesville when they were told at the last minute that their application to play had been approved. Unfortunately, many of the BBGC girls had already left town for family summer vacations.
In fact, the BBGC Juniors only were left with seven girls. In order for a complete team to take the field at bare minimum, there needs to be a goalkeeper and 11 girls in the field. A mathematics degree wasn't needed to see that Noe and her girls would be unable to compete unless they found some sort of help, maybe from a newly familiar friend.
While visiting with Mackintosh during the Lightning Lax tournament, Noe asked if any of his Crofton players would like to join her team for the Max Lax tourney, which draws a vast 300 teams from multiple states from the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. The CAC players, Noe said, showed no hesitation in volunteering to join her Bowie players for such a prestigious tournament.
The Crofton squad joined six of its players with the seven from BBGC and the team entered the Max Lax tournament as a Level B team, and with no expectations.
"Dave and I were amazed at how well the two groups played together," said Noe, who noted that the newly formed team had only one 30-minute practice together before beginning tournament play. "They showed really great communication on the field."
The new BBGC-Crofton hybrid squad, playing under the BBGC name, was placed in the Level C Blue division by Max Lax tournament organizers. While a team of players that are half A level and half B level talent sounds like quite a break, there was still one issue facing the team: They had just enough girls to field a complete team with one substitute. That meant that each player was likely going to be charged with playing an entire game.
The upside was that there were no expectations of winning more than one game in the tournament. After all, with 300 teams competing in the re-gional competition, there would probably be plenty of completely stocked teams just chomping at the bit to take on an incomplete team such as the Bowie-Crofton squad, one that barely knew each other.
Adding insult to the proverbial injury was the fact that one player - the goalie - had to leave the team, forcing Noe and Mackintosh to coach their players through an entire tournament with one sub for only one game.
Brutal.
BBGC Junior Joy Corbin, who had not played between the pipes in two seasons, volunteered to step up and stop shots in the absence of CAC keeper Ashley Peacock. All Corbin did was allow four goals as her team won the match, 11-4.
The squad easily defeated its initial two opponents, which was already a surprise for the two coaches. Then after losing the third game the girls won the semifinal match by a single goal, 7-6. "Trudging through five games with no subs, that's huge," said Noe, who said that a normal full team has enough players to take the field with six to eight subs on the bench. "These girls played like a team and acted like a team."
The championship game was nerve-racking. The "hybrid" team again had zero subs on the bench. The game consisted of two 20-minute halves and was neck and neck throughout. At the end of regulation time, the score was deadlocked at seven goals, leading to a 2-minute sudden-death overtime.
A sudden death essentially means exactly that. The first team to score wins. There is no such thing as a do-over. There is no instant replay to challenge disputed calls from the officials. For better or worse, the game ends with the first shot that splits the pipes, making the opening OT face-off critical to the game's outcome, especially for a team pieced together at zero hour and full of heart and dedication to winning a tournament for their coaches.
BBGC won the opening face-off. Bowie attacker Cori Conley, a sixth-grader who is also the youngest player on her BBGC Juniors team, picked up the ball and moved downfield, but a penalty was called against their New York opponents, leading to a penalty shot.
This is pressure.
During the penalty shot another foul was called against the hybrid's opponent. Conley reset and "the little girl plowed through everyone," according to Noe, and scored the improbable game-winning goal. Teammates crowded around and instantly Conley's coaches and parents converged on the unlikely hero.
"(Conley) broke down in tears and I almost lost it," said Noe, who was proud to win the tournament just as much for Mackintosh, who was completing his final season as a coach, as she was for herself and her players. "It's a nice send-off for (Mackintosh)," said Noe. "Dave is a great coach ... and we could not have won without the Crofton girls." Noe also said that without the CAC players, she would have had no team, much less a championship winning team.
There was never any split between Bowie or Crofton players throughout the tournament and, in fact, said Noe, "it was awesome watching (the girls). There was no selfishness ... and everyone included each other."
In addition to the willingness of Mackintosh to cross the Prince George's County border from Anne Arundel, Noe credited Boileau and his wife, Tanya, for "working so hard for BBGC. Without them, we'd not be able to do much of what we do."
The BBGC Level B players who participated in the Max Lax tournament were: Joy Corbin, Cydney and Cori Conley, Sarah Hatef, Katie Delaney, Cara McNellis and Jessica Boileau.
The Crofton girls were: Ashley Peacock, Jane Truffer, Anna Stumme, Stacey Mackintosh, Sara Munez and Sabrina Davis.
