During a tension-filled scene in the 2007 movie Transformers, actor Jon Voight, playing the role of the Secretary of Defense, diffuses a potential armed conflict by telling those in the underground bunker, “I’d do what he says. Losing’s really not an option for these guys,” referring to the heavily-armed special forces soldiers.
That could easily be the motto for the Broadneck High girls soccer team this fall as, despite the loss of a multitude of seniors from last year’s Anne Arundel County regular season championship squad and some offensive woes in 2022, the No. 1 Bruins ended their league campaign undefeated following Monday’s 3-1 win over Chesapeake-Anne Arundel in the title game at Northeast.
With the score tied 1-1 at the half, Broadneck, which improved to 11-0-4, capitalized on some fortuitous bounces during set pieces to pull away from the athletic and hard-charging Cougars, who fell to 10-3-1, with two of those three setbacks coming to the Bruins.
“It just kind of felt like, if we stayed aggressive . . . and followed up some chances, we’d have a lot better chance (to score),” Broadneck coach John Camm said. “That’s really one of the few things we’ve struggled with all year. We made the most of it tonight. We were creating havoc in front of the goal. I’m happy for the girls.”
Senior forward Sadie Wilkinson converted the first of those two second half goals during a melee in the penalty area during a corner kick that included several deflected attempts by the Bruins before the ball came to Wilkinson, who booted the ball cleanly into the back of the net for a 2-1 advantage roughly a minute after play resumed from halftime.
Junior Maddie midfielder Maddie Capps then essentially put the contest away with 27:08 left in the match during another corner kick. Capps, who scored the game’s opening goal in the first half as well, sent a loose ball into the air and as it landed, the knuckleballing shot took what would be called a wicked high hop in baseball past Chesapeake goalkeeper Ryleigh Smoot and into the goal.
“I think that when things happen like that, it just shows you that it doesn’t have to be a pretty goal; it just has to have hard work put into it,” Capps said. “Because we worked hard, it just went our way when I hit it like that.
“We’ve had trouble scoring this year, but scoring three goals this game shows we are working hard and improving every day we practice. We knew it would be a little more challenging (this year) because we lost 12 seniors last year, but we knew that we are capable of so many good things.”
In a first half largely dominated by both defenses, each team found the back of the net on two more loose balls that were not adequately cleared.
Capps banged home a loose ball that went off the head of Wilkinson and landed dangerously inside the box with 18:59 left in the opening half. Chesapeake junior Abey Eden knotted the match with 9:29 remaining as she ran onto a loose ball off a deflected through ball before chipping a shot into the back of the net.
“We’ve given up nine goals this year and seven of them have been on set pieces,” Cougars coach Kevin Keeter said. “We told them to stay away from set pieces because (the Bruins) are pretty physical. We knew we’d be in trouble on set pieces, and all three goals were on set pieces. They were the better team tonight.”
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
at Northeast
NO. 1 BROADNECK 3, CHESAPEAKE-ANNE ARUNDEL 1
Chesapeake 1 0 - 1
Broadneck 1 2 - 3
GOALS: Chesapeake - Eden Abey. Broadneck - Maddie Capps 2, Sadie Wilkinson.
SAVES: Chesapeake - Ryleigh Smoot 4. Broadneck - Kyleigh Bland 6.
