Girls Lacrosse: Foxcroft Beats Highland to Advance to State Title Game

Middleburg (May 17, 2013) - Senior captain Carter Ware scored with 3:43 remaining and a rock-hard defense allowed just one goal in the second half Friday morning to lead Foxcroft to a 7-6 victory over Highland School at Collegiate School in Richmond and a berth in the VISAA State Lacrosse Final for the first time in school history.

Foxcroft, the No. 2 seed in Division II, will play for the championship Friday at 11 a.m. against top-seeded Covenant School (Charlottesville). The game will be video-streamed live on VISAA.TV.


Friday's win was Foxcroft’s third victory over Highland in four meetings this season and its second consecutive triumph by one goal. Ware, an All-State midfielder from Middleburg, also scored the winning goal -- in quadruple overtime -- against Highland last week to give Foxcroft its first Delaney Athletic Conference Championship.

Sophomore attack Emma Rogers (McLean), who was named the DAC Player of the Year earlier this week, scored three goals, reaching the 50-goal plateau for the season, and also assisted on Ware’s game-winner. Olivia Jane Johnson, a All-DAC senior attack player, (Rectortown) added a pair of goals while junior Lilly MacDonald (Bluemont) had one goal and led the team in ground ball recoveries with five.

“We were lucky to win,” said Foxcroft Coach Patrick Finn after the fierce battle. “We knew it was going to be a tossup. I thought the key was our controlling more draws in the second half and our hustle on loose balls. We made key plays.”

One of the biggest plays came with 1:20 remaining when MacDonald outhustled a Highland player to the ball on a free toss deep in Highland territory. Lilly then brought the ball up field into Foxcroft’s attack zone and conspired with her teammates to run out the clock for the victory.

“That was a huge play,” Coach Finn said. “Lilly played a great game.”

Foxcroft’s defense suffered a lapse near the end of the first half by allowing three goals in the final 1:08, but picked up its game in the second half, completely shutting down Highland’s offense. Led by DAC honorable mention Kate Eagen (junior, Middleburg), junior Kelly Buckland (Alexandria), and sophomore Tori Weber (Waterford), Foxcroft’s defenders covered their assigned players like horse blankets and outhustled their opponents to loose balls.

“We talked to the defense at halftime. They weren’t playing badly except for that one bad lapse at the end of the half,” Coach Finn said. “We needed them to keep hustling and cut off the passes to the middle.”

Both teams played a deliberate style of offense, passing the ball back and forth and waiting for an opportune time to strike. Highland took a 1-0 lead with 21:25 remaining in the first half on a goal by Mackenzie Walker, but Rogers and MacDonald scored 14 seconds apart to give Foxcroft a 2-1 lead. After Highland’s Jessica Crew tied the score with 14:14 left, Johnson scored twice in a four-minute span to put Foxcroft ahead, 4-2.

Then came a letdown by the defense. Kendall Mayer, Walker and Olivia Bell all scored within a 1:08 span – the last goal coming with just six seconds left in the half – to give Highland a 5-4 lead at intermission.

Bell put Highland ahead, 6-4, with her second goal at 17:31 of the second half, but two goals by Rogers – the second of which came on a shovel shot during a scramble in front of the Highland net – enabled Foxcroft to tie the score with 11:25 remaining.

Foxcroft broke the tie with 3:43 remaining when Ware took a pass on the right side of the net from Rogers and fired a shot past Highland goalie Emma Walsh. Highland never got off another shot and Foxcroft now has a chance to do something no Foxcroft team in any sport has ever achieved – bring home a state title.

Foxcroft advanced to the semifinals with a 12-10 victory over Trinity Christian (Fairfax) Tuesday.