Decatur Girls Cruise To Region Championship

BERLIN
- It was not nearly as suspenseful as the road to get there, but that did not
seem to matter to the Stephen Decatur's varsity girls' lacrosse team as it
easily won the 3A-2A East Region Wednesday.

The Seahawks
had no problems with Patuxent at home, cruising to a 14-3 victory and the East
Region crown.

The
Seahawks will now move on to the state semifinals at Annapolis High School this
weekend. If they are successful in advancing past the semifinal round, the
Seahawks will face off in the state finals at UMBC Stadium in Baltimore.

In
Wednesday's win, Decatur (14-3 on the season) was led by LeighAnn Flounlacker's
three goals. There was some suspense before the game involving the Decatur's
scoring leader as she suffered a twisted ankle in warm-ups. Although she was
hobbled a bit, she still led the team and scored the first goal of the game two
minutes into regulation. Numerous other Seahawks tallied individual goals in
the lopsided win.

Prior
to the easy championship win, Decatur endured a brutal game with archrival
Parkside on Monday to advance to the regional final.

The
Seahawks and Rams had met twice before the regional semifinal game with
Parkside winning 9-8 in overtime back on March 31. Decatur avenged that loss
with an 11-2 win on May 6.

On
Monday, it was a classic, as Decatur survived with a 7-5 overtime win. The host
Seahawks jumped all over the Rams early, building a 4-0 lead at halftime, but
the visiting Rams dominated the second half, outscoring Decatur 5-1. Parkside
scored two goals in the last minute of regulation to force overtime with a 5-5
deadlock.

In the
extra period, Flounlacker was again the hero, giving Decatur the edge with a
goal. Decatur ended up scoring two in the extra session to win 7-5.

The
Decatur-Parkside rivalry ran deep this year, even beyond splitting the regular
season matchups. A little politics and luck played a role in deciding the
teams' future.

At the
end of the regular season, the two teams were tied atop the Bayside South standings
and were declared co-champions. However, Parkside won a coin flip for the right
to appear and eventually win this year's conference title.

As luck
would have it, another coin flip was needed to determine who would be the top
seed in the East Sectional, and Decatur secured that and home field advantage
over Parkside.