Fallston needed only 90 seconds to prevent South Carroll from completing a dynasty-killing week.
On Monday, the Cavaliers ended Liberty’s three-year run as Class 1A state champions with an 8-4 upset on the road. And on Wednesday, with an attack as sharp and composed as it has been all season, No. 3 seed South Carroll took aim at the team Liberty beat at the end of each title run: Fallston.
The Cavaliers took the No. 6 Cougars the distance, but Fallston prevailed with an 8-7 win and a ticket to the semifinals behind a glorious game-winner on the stick of senior Ava Lambros.
It was tied at 7 nearing the 1:30 mark of the final quarter. Both teams used the passing minutes to chew giant chunks of the clock, hoping for the final, decisive attempt.
Fallston’s Ayla Galloway had a clean look at the cage as she powered through contact. Her legs slipped out from under her and the attempt bounced wide right. The senior popped up and ripped the ball back near midfield. “Ayla Galloway is a force,” Cougars coach Maddie Palko said. “She does not quit.” Galloway zipped it to up to Lambros, creating a 3-on-1 advantage.
“I saw Ayla coming behind,” Lambros said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I better score this.'” Lambros, also a senior, did just that. Fallston’s top attacker barreled down the middle of the lane, dodged the South Carroll defender and slipped a shot past the goalkeeper in a whirlwind sequence. It was Lambros’ third goal and Fallston’s first lead of the night.
“Trusting her to be able to make that goal and then seeing it go in the back of the net was so surreal,” Galloway said. Lambros leaped into Galloway’s arms –– a joyous moment along an arduous journey that they both know isn’t over.
“We just kept telling them, think of all the [things] that we’ve done to prep for moments like this,” Palko said. “Don’t quit. We have a saying, ‘Empty your bucket.’ They believed in themselves and each other.”
The air was thick Wednesday night. Maybe it was the evening’s muggy conditions, or perhaps the lofty expectations from two programs hanging in the balance. Each possession of the fourth quarter shouldered the weight of the game and the season.
South Carroll finished 10-5 a year ago, halted in the 1A West Region I final. Cavaliers coach Brigid Scanlon said that at the outset of the year, her returners “set expectations high for the season.” Scanlon reminded her team postgame that they “beat teams we weren’t supposed to” and “came farther in playoffs than anybody would have expected.”
To many of the Cougars, this run is their last dance. A bulk of their 26-girl roster is made up of 14 seniors, many of whom have been around the program for each of their three state final appearances.
“We could say that we’ve been working all year for this,” Lambros said, “but really, us specifically and all the other seniors, have been working four years for this.”
For much of the first half it appeared South Carroll’s game to lose. The Cavaliers were quicker at the point of attack and Fallston had no answer for the home team’s fiery defense. Then Fallston punched back ferociously, tipping the game on its axis with a string of three straight goals. Galloway, Anna Miller and then Lambros each netted one in a three-minute stretch that turned a daunting 5-2 deficit into a tie.
Palko talked with her group, tied at 6 at halftime, about how they seemed too reactive in the first half. The Cougars buckled down and held South Carroll to one second-half goal, scoring twice themselves. Galloway scored her second goal to tie it and Lambros silenced the home crowd to end it.
“I told them in the offseason, ‘You’re fighting the enemy in your head,'” Palko said, pointing to her temples. “We need to learn how to struggle so that we can work through the struggle. It’s led us to some tough outcomes. But it prepped us for games like this.”
Fallston — 2 4 0 2 — 8
South Carroll — 4 2 1 0 — 7
F: Lambros 3, A. Miller 2, Galloway 2, O’Mailey. SC: L. Miller 3, Yankle 3, Fowble.
