Garrison Forest School is celebrating its Centennial. Sunday afternoon, the Owings Mills school got a gift from its field hockey team Sunday afternoon, courtesy of Brooke Adler.
The sophomore’s goal in overtime lifted the No. 8 Grizzlies past 10th ranked Notre Dame Prep, 3-2, for the IAAM A Conference crown at Goucher College Sunday afternoon.
“It was a well fought game by both teams,” said Garrison Forest coach Traci Davis, whose team won its third championship in five seasons. “For a team in a championship, NDP, with a two goal deficit, come back and ties us and force the game into overtime, it made it a real great championship game.”
In the closing minutes of overtime, Garrison Forest (16-2-1 overall) created two corner chances as Adler stroked the ball to the back of the net for the championship. It was redemption for the Grizzlies, who lost to Bryn Mawr in overtime in last year’s finals.
“I think that we were able to work really well as a team,” said Adler. “We were able to draw a lot corners and we executed them really well.”
The Grizzlies appeared to have things in hand with a 2-0 second half advantage, but Notre Dame Prep (13-3-1) did not go away quietly. Lindsay White got the ball to Kelsey Gahan who knocked the first goal for the Blazers to trim the advantage.
The gutsy Blazers began generating quality shots off of corner chances. One of those chances came with less than four minutes in the second half as Gahan drove in her second goal of the game off of a Meaghan Smith assist.
“They [Notre Dame Prep] capitalized on those corner opportunities and I think we were a little hesitant coming out and they had two great shots,” said Davis.
Garrison Forest dominated the early action Sunday with three corner chances in the first three minutes of the game. On the third opportunity, senior Cody Magness found a seam in the Blazer defense and delivered a pass to Adler who knocked it in for a 1-0 advantage.
The Grizzlies defenders were barely put to work as their forwards camped out on the Notre Dame Prep side of the field. In the first half Garrison Forest drew 12 corners to zero for Notre Dame Prep in the opening 30 minutes.
“We know that they [Notre Dame Prep] are a very talented and athletic team and we just tried to counter that,” said Davis.
“We talk well as a team and work well,” said Adler. “We were able to trust each other and our forward line does a good job of getting us the ball.”
Garrison Forest pushed the lead to 2-0 at the 28 minute mark as sophomore Geagy Pritchard fed the ball to Magness, who deposited the ball in the back of the cage from five yards out.
But it was Blazers who rode a wave of confidence into back-to-back scores to force overtime. They got two corners and two shots in the first five minutes of overtime, but Garrison Forest’s defense held tight, opening the door for Adler.
“It feels really good after losing last year,” said Adler, “we are so happy to it [back].”
