More News

The St. John's-Catholic Prep girls soccer team knew that it was going to have to give a top performance to bring home this year's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference championship match on Saturday afternoon at Gerstell Academy in Finksburg.

Unfortunately for the top-seeded Vikings, their performance was not what they hoped for as they fell behind early and dropped a 3-0 decision to second-seeded Bryn Mawr.

"We knew that this game was going to be a tough game," said St. John's head coach Sheldon Henry. "We were the number one seed in this but they had the same record as we did. Their only loss [in conference] was to us earlier in the year so they had that extra kind of thing going but we played hard."

Since losing to the Vikings in mid-September, the Mawrtians (13-4) have won 12 straight games, eight in a row of which were shutouts. Junior forward Morgan Rubin netted two goals, while sophomore Riley Barger contributed one goal and one assist to help the Baltimore County school clinch its first soccer championship.

SJCP (12-5) boasted the conference's top scoring offense but could never get anything going Sunday. With what was maybe the Vikings' best chance of scoring, senior midfielder Jessica Breen had a direct kick that cleared Bryn Mawr's defensive wall but just sailed over the top of the net in the first half.

"We didn't get to have the ball enough," said Vikings senior forward Jennie Ballanger, who set a single-season school record with 26 goals this season. "We kept on trying to play defense but it just didn't work out."

With 5:30 remaining in the first half, Mawrtians senior forward Sophia Sourlis fired a shot that caromed off the crossbar. The shot pulled Vikings goalie Victoria Elliott (four saves) out of position and Rubin was able to convert the rebound in the front of the net to give the Mawrtians a 1-0 lead that they never lost.

"We started out slow and we never picked it up from there," said senior captain Hyatt Keller. "We tried our hardest and that is all you can do."

"Their defense played well," Henry added. "This was a classic defensive versus offensive team, they shut out their last seven opponent. Bottom line is defense wins championships."

In Thursday's semifinal, St. John's defeated Roland Park 5-2. Breen scored two goals for the Vikings, while Ballenger, freshman Laura Malagari, and Marial Pierce scored a goal each for the Vikings.