Girls soccer
Raines’ goal helps Falcons drop rival
Sophomore’s second-half score lifts Severna Park to fifth straight triumph
Maybe it was the switch from pink to their normal blue uniforms that replenished Severna Park soccer’s powers.
But if it was, coach Brian Morgan would never tell.
“It might have been a mental thing, for them,” he said, smiling.
The Falcons, clad temporarily in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month, turned a frustrating first half into a fruitful second. Sophomore Ella Raines ended the scoring drought with a unchallenged kick in the last 30 minutes to hand 10th-ranked Severna Park a 1-0 victory over visiting and 12th-ranked Broadneck.
The Falcons (9-1) haven’t known what it feels like to lose since mid-September — nearly a month ago — when they dropped a close set to South River.
A five-game winning streak could inflate some team’s heads. But it’s not the near-perfect season they’re crafting that elevates their play to another level, but the other way around.
“That boosts our confidence and our efforts so that next time we play a hard team, we know if we beat this team, we can beat the next too. Every game is the same,” Raines said.
This was not going to be one of Severna Park’s blowouts of the recent past. The Bruins (5-3-2) corralled the Falcons to the midfield, as did the Falcons right back.
It wasn’t until about eight minutes in that Severna Park began pressuring goal, but the Falcons were still unable to aim a good shot. The first touch Broadneck keeper Mason Smargissi even had on the ball was a soft blooper to her hands, nothing that had the potential of putting the Falcons up.
Midfielder Skylar Flewellyn led the offensive for the Bruins, taking shots not once, not twice, but three times on Severna Park keeper Katie Byrd within five minutes.
“I thought we played really well. We could have had two or three goals. Chalk some of it up to the keeper,” Broadneck coach John Camm said.
Bruins freshman Eva Mowery took a lead from her fellow attack. She swerved around multiple Falcons in the backfield and let her shot fly. Byrd raised her hands. She’d miss.
And the ball fell into the embrace of the net — the side of it, anyway.
“We created a lot of dangerous chances,” Camm said. “They put four and five people back, we got behind them a few times … credit to them, they’re organized; they’re skilled; they’re a good team, but I like the heart we played with, the attention we played with.”
Both teams were awarded corners late in the first half, but each opportunity dissipated almost immediately.
About nine minutes into the second half, the Falcons scored. Junior forward Bella Espinoza, who’d had a hand in a number of Severna Park’s touches already, handed possession to Raines. The sophomore bolted from a crowd of players and took a split-second to correct her feet, then struck for the winning goal.
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