Girls Lacrosse: Langley Falls to Oakton in Region Championship

Though the Langley High girls lacrosse team sought vengeance for their early-season loss to the Oakton Cougars, the Saxons fell short with a 9-7 loss in the Northern Region Championship on Friday.

The Saxons seized control early, with Hayley Soutter scoring the first goal of the game within 15 seconds. Though the Cougars tied the game a few minutes later, the Saxons took advantage of earning draw control by eating more than 10 minutes off the clock to slow the game down.

"[The Cougars] thrive on chaos. They're all over the place, up and down the field, running teams down. We had to take that away, and that's the reason for that strategy early on," Coach Richard DeSomma said. "We went in expecting that because they're so good at the attack."

But once the stalemate ended, it was the Cougars who knocked in the first goal on a transition play. The Saxons answered with a goal from Olivia Sisson on a pass from Grace Goettman. When the Cougars again took the lead, the Saxons again reciprocated with a goal from Margo Swomley on a pass from Olivia Sisson. In the last two minutes of the first half, the Saxons netted two more goals — both from Soutter — to take a 5-3 lead at halftime.

The Cougars opened scoring in the second half, with a Saxon goal from Swomley soon after to put the score at 6-4. But the Cougars then went on a 5-1 scoring spree, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Saxons. The Saxons' last goal came from Soutter, who had four of the Saxons' seven goals. 

"We knew what they could do, and we knew what Carly could do," DeSomma said of Carly Palmucci, the Northern Region Player of the Year who scored five goals for the Cougars. "We know what she can do. She's the playmaker, the director. She's got great skills and talent. We tried to address that throughout the game."

Despite the loss, the Saxons' season continues with an automatic berth into the AAA Virginia High School League Tournament, which begins June 2. 

"We played really well in this tournament. Last night against Centreville, we were down after the first half. We shut down their scoring in the second half and came back little by little. So that's what we can do. The girls never give up and always have faith. They work well as a team, and I expect that will continue through states," DeSomma said. "If things go like they look on paper, we will probably see Oakton again in the finals. But we'll take one game at a time for now."