Marshall Field Hockey Tops Falls Church

The George C. Marshall field hockey team followed up its two victories in the weekend Herndon Tournament with another decisive victory over the Falls Church High School Lady Jaguars 2-0.

The Statesmen (3-4) wrested control from the Jags (1-1) with aggressive play and scored on a Gina Cappiello redirection from a Mills cross with 16:29 remaining in the first half. Colleen Gallagher added a second tally with 23:51 left in the second half when she slammed a loose ball into the Jaguar net.

Falls Church believed they had broken the shutout late in the game when Marcella Janczewski slipped a shot past into the Marshall goal, but the play was whistled dead when Falls Church was instead awarded a penalty corner.

Marshall out-shot their adversary 9-2 and had a 6-3 edge in penalty corners.

The win Monday was followed by a disappointing 1-0 overtime loss to Washington and Lee. The game winning goal was a controversial one, when W&L attacking players seemingly failed touched the ball within the circle before a shot went in. The officials conferred briefly and then awarded the goal and the game to Washington and Lee.

Over the weekend, the Statesmen split a series of four games at the Herndon Tournament, topping Osborne Park 3-0 on two goals by sophomore midfielder Lauryn Byrne and a third by junior Shaney Soderquist.

Marshall pulled out a thriller in overtime against Culpepper 1-0 with Melissa MacNabb netting the game-winning marker.

MacNabb also scored the Statesmen’s lone goal against division-rival Langley, but it would not be enough as Marshall fell by the final margin of 2-1.

The Statesmen suffered their second defeat of the tournament at the hands of Lake Braddock, losing in strokes after overtime expired in a scoreless tie. Despite the mark in the loss column, Head Coach Christina Carroll was very encouraged by what she saw.

“Braddock is always at the top of the region so it was very nice to hang,” Carroll said. “We really surprised ourselves by playing up to them. We could definitely have a better finishing record than last year, but it’s still early and have a long way to go.”