Arundel head girls lacrosse coach Kim McNemar admittedly felt sentimental walking to the lacrosse field to play Catonsville. She was the head coach when the Comets won their only girls lacrosse state championship in 1996.
But, on this day, her Wildcats were taking on the Comets, now coached by McNemar’s friend Cantey Bailey.
It’s the second time she has played Catonsville and the second time Arundel fell short.
The Comets got five goals from Milena Stephen, four goals and two assists from Casey Fisher and three goals from Adele Jones in the 13-10 victory.
Arundel (1-3), a defending state finalist last year, was led by Morgan Gore (five goals, one assist).
The game was tied at 3 with 13:49 left in the first half when the Comets (2-2) scored five straight goals and Arundel never recovered.
The go-ahead score began with a forced turnover and ground ball scooped by Maggie Kubofcik.
She cleared it and fed Kassidy Boehl, who connected with a cutting Stephen for the transition goal with 9:12 left in the first half.
“I think we definitely rallied off of it,” Stephen said. “We tried to take the momentum and run with it and it was definitely a team effort. In transition, we just dump it off to whoever is open and I happened to be open on that one.”
“They definitely fed off that in a great way, it was awesome,” Bailey said.
Less than a minute later, Stephen scored on a free position and Fisher assisted Kubofcik for a 6-3 lead.
Fisher’s unassisted tally was followed by another goal by Stephen off a Kubofcik assist for an 8-3 lead with 3:19 remaining until intermission.
Bailey praised her senior, Stephen, and freshman Kubofcik.
“[Stephen] has really taken that senior leadership to heart this year,” she said of the co-captain with Kathleen Stubbs.
Kubofcik, who shared draw duty with Marisa Massimini, was active getting ground balls with outstanding hustle.
“She plays like she’s been here a while, with experience and composure that you don’t get from freshmen,” Bailey said.
The Comets won 11 draws while the Arundel duet of Lily Schurr and Emily Teague won 12.
Arundel appeared to gain some momentum after it held the Comets scoreless while they had an extra-man advantage for two minutes.
Gore’s free-position goal with two seconds left in the half made it 8-4.
Catonsville seized the momentum again with three straight goals to open the second half.
Adele Jones had two of the tallies and Fisher had one.
Catonsville’s defense of Stubbs, Jordan Edwards, Allison Kitchel and Sydney Mah was stellar throughout in front of goalie Anna Johnston, who had 11 of her 14 saves in the second half.
Johnston helped protect the lead late with four saves in the final 5:16 after Arundel had cut the deficit to 13-10 on a goal by Marissa Arianna, off a Madison Barber assist.
“She (Johnston) did an amazing job,” Bailey said. “She was seeing it and talking and she was leading the defense today which is what we needed from her.”
Stephen also praised her classmate between the pipes.
“She is so good. She comes up big for us all the time,” she said.
Gore, who will play at the University of Delaware next season, did everything she could to get the Wildcats back in the game, but she left with an ankle injury with 2:44 left and Arundel didn’t score again.
“She is amazing, but she can’t do it all,” McNemar said.
Scoring
Goals: C-Milena Stephen 5, Casey Fisher 4, Adele Jones 3, Maggie Kubofcik 1; A-Morgan Gore 5, Marissa Arianna 2, Lauren Egan 2, Madison Barber 1
Assists: Fisher 2, Kubofcik 2, Kassidy Boehl 1; A-Barber 2, Gore 1.
Saves: C-Anna Johnston 14; A-Kylie Sharpe 9
Halftime: 8-4 Cat
