Decatur Girls Pull Away From Worcester, 13-7

Decatur Girls Pull Away From Worcester, 13-7
claire porter 1

BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team got out to a big early lead, withstood a big comeback in the middle and pulled away late to defeat crosstown rival Worcester Prep, 13-7, last Saturday to improve to 5-2.

The Seahawks faced the Mallards last Saturday on a picture-perfect Easter weekend afternoon for the big bragging rights game with crosstown rival Worcester Prep. The two teams play almost every year, creating a natural rivalry for the two schools just a couple miles apart. The private school Mallards play in a different conference then the public school Seahawks, so the game has little bearing on the standings or post-season positioning, but because most of the players grew up in the same youth programs and travel teams at different times of the year, they are very familiar with each other and the annual contest goes a long way in terms of bragging rights in the community for the next year.

Familiarity breeds contempt and that goes for the annual matchup between the Worcester and Decatur girls. They might play on the same travel teams or even be heading to the same colleges, or maybe the players hang out with each other on weekends, but when the whistle blows it’s all business between the lines and that showed again last Saturday.

Decatur threatened to blow Worcester out, building a 7-0 lead early. The Seahawks got on the board with just over seven minutes left in the first half to cut the lead to 7-1, but Decatur took a 10-1 lead into intermission. Worcester came charging back however.

Just about six minutes into the second half, Worcester’s Carly Hoffman scored to cut the lead to 10-2. Three minutes later, Delaney Abercrombie scored to cut the lead to 10-3. Worcester scored two more during the sequence to cut the lead to 10-5 and Karlie Southcomb’s goal with seven minutes left chipped away at if further, cutting the lead to 10-6.

With five minutes left, Worcester scored an apparent goal to cut the lead to 10-7. However, the goal was waived off because of a penalty and Decatur went right down the field on the ensuing possession to score. Instead of cutting the lead to 10-7 with plenty of time left, Worcester found itself trailing 11-6 in what would be a turning point in the game.

Decatur went on to add two more goals while Worcester tallied just once more as the Seahawks pulled away for the 13-7 win.

With the win, the Seahawks improved to 5-2 on the season. Decatur started with two straight wins, then fell to Queen Anne’s. After two more wins, the Seahawks lost to Cape Henlopen, 11-9, last week before the win over Worcester on Saturday. Meanwhile, Worcester started the season with five straight wins, but have lost three of the last four including the loss to Decatur on Saturday. The Mallards hope to rebound this week against Calverton, while Decatur has a date looming with Kent Island.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.