Decatur Girls Rally Past Worcester

BERLIN- For the fourth straight year, Stephen Decatur's girls' varsity lacrosse team got the best of its cross-town rival Worcester Prep last week, beating the Mallards, 7-4, in front of a big bi-partisan crowd at Worcester on Friday.

It's always special when Decatur and Worcester face each other in any sport, but lacrosse seems to be the focal point of the old rivalry. The girls on both teams are very familiar with each other and often compete together on summer, fall and winter travel and tournament teams. Most of them live in the same neighborhoods and came up through the same youth lacrosse programs.

When the calendar turns to spring and the local players head off to their respective high school teams, it's all business and off-season teammates become familiar rivals again. With neighborhood bragging rights on the line for an entire year, the two teams faced off last Friday in front of a big crowd at Worcester Prep with the Seahawks continuing their recent mastery over the Mallards.

For years, the older, more established Worcester Prep program dominated the fledgling Decatur program before the Seahawks beat the Mallards for the first time in 2006 by a score of 16-4. The Decatur girls repeated the domination in 2007, beating Worcester, 16-4, on their way to a state regional championship. Last year, Decatur beat Worcester again, 6-2.

Both teams swapped goals early in the contest before Decatur began to pull away somewhat. When the dust settled, the Seahawks had beaten the Mallards, 7-4, for their fourth straight win over their cross-town rivals. It marked the second year in a row that defense and goalkeeping told the story as last year's contest ended with the Seahawks on top, 6-2. Decatur keeper Taylor Phillips had a big day in goal for the Seahawks, while Worcester keeper Alex Lewis turned in the game's most impressive performance, recording 19 saves.

With offense at a premium, goals were few and far between in the low-scoring contest, but the Seahawks got contributions from up and down the line-up to outscore the Mallards. Leigh Ann Flounlacker led Decatur with two goals, while Alyssa Hardesty, Olivia Turner, Lexi Nathan, Bethany Howe and Nicole Dougan each scored single goals. For Worcester, Molly Dickerson and Jackie Wangel scored two goals each.

With the win, the Decatur girls remained unbeaten with a 5-0 overall record including a 3-0 mark in the Bayside Conference. After the Easter break, the Seahawks get back in action with a road game against Wicomico on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Worcester Prep girls faced another difficult non-conference opponent on Tuesday when they traveled to Bullis School in Potomac. The Mallards lost to Bullis, 17-7, despite four goals from Dickerson, to fall even at 3-3 on the season. Worcester faces ESIAC rival Salisbury School at home on Tuesday to start the second half of the season.