LACROSSE ROUNDUP: Blues eat up a second straight title

Promise of pizza may have helped St. Mary's Academy get off to a good start in 16-10 win over Lake Oswego

By Casey Michel

The Portland Tribune, May 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

VERN UYETAKE / THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE

The St. Mary's Academy Blues celebrate their second straight state lacrosse championship. The Blues beat Lake Oswego in Thursday's finals.

Apparently, all it took was some pizza for St. Mary’s Academy to blow by Lake Oswego 16-10 and claim the Oregon Girls Lacrosse Association championship Thursday night.

The Blues (19-0) may have entered the championship game without a single loss, but many of their wins – including their semifinal victory over Oregon City – have been come-from-behind efforts.

So as the defending champions prepared to face Lake Oswego (17-2) at Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District, SMA coach Holly Ziegler proposed a different way of looking at the game.

“We seem to be this team that comes from behind, and it drives all of us crazy,” Ziegler says. “[The players] don’t seem to mind it, because they always end up winning and coming back, but at some point they’re not going to be able to do it. So I was just like, ‘What if we just treat the first half like the full game?’”

As added incentive, Ziegler enticed her squad with pizza if they won the “first” game.

From the way they responded to her offer, it appears the Blues were hungry for more than just a victory.

Although Lack Oswego’s Annika Sohlstrom notched the Lakers’ first goal only 27 seconds into the game, SMA midfielder Catherine Davidson answered just 16 seconds later.

The two teams traded goals over the next 12 minutes, and after SMA’s Colleen O’Donnell put away a wraparound goal, the score was knotted at 4-4.

But the Lakers quickly found out why the Blues had yet to experience a loss. With SMA’s defense stifling all but one of Lake Oswego’s attempts over the next 11 minutes, the Blues managed to run up the score to 10-5 entering the second half.

The second half saw much of the same as the first. Lake Oswego never got closer than four goals, and SMA seemed to hold an answer to every mini-rally by the Lakers.

The Lakers did not have a solution for the SMA tandem of Catherine Davidson and Sally Roberts, who combined for 13 goals, including nine of the Blues’ last 10.

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