On Saturday, the Darien High School Varsity Girls Lacrosse team traveled nearly four hours down the coast to the USA Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks, Maryland. The Wave (6-0, #1 team in the country) was taking on the St. Paul’s School for Girls (11-1, #3 team in the country).

St. Paul, the two-time defending Maryland state champion and #1 team after the 2022 season is one of the Old Line State’s premier teams.

Some Wave fateful made the nearly 300-mile voyage to Sparks for this contest, but the bleachers were covered with the St. Paul’s green and white.

Darien got going early with a pair of goals from the stick of Chloe Humphrey. Humphrey, the number one player in the class of 2023 has now scored 30+ goals on the season and put Darien up 2-0 just minutes into the contest.

St. Paul’s battled back in the game, and behind their goalie Susan Radebaugh the Gators saw a free position goal from Laureen Steer, and Marleigh O’Day got the equalizer with 11:54 to play in the first half.

St. Paul’s was not done, the sophomore Caroline Hoskins buried another free position for three unanswered and a 3-2 St. Paul lead.

The Wave saw another goal from the Princeton-bound Colette Quinn to tie it at 3-3 but not for long as the Gators won the next draw control and scored quickly to go up 4-3.

Humphrey struck again to put it at 4-4 with 10 minutes to play in the first. And she wasn’t done, three minutes later a wrap-around shot saw Humphrey going top corner sniping a goal on Radebaugh to put the Wave up 5-4.

This is where things got intreating, 6:22 left to play in the first half, the sophomore Marleigh O’Day scored her second of the contest going through the five hole of Hope Schoudel. However, this goal was different. As the Gators were celebrating the 5-5 tying goal, an air horn blew, and the USA Lacrosse Staff had taken the field and called for the game to be put on a weather delay. Despite it being 52 degrees and sunny out the staff so inclement weather and thus put the game on a delay.

For the next 2 hours and 18 minutes, the teams sat in the locker rooms, and everybody sat around waiting for play to resume.

After the play did resume neither team wanted to give in, and the first half continued to be a back-and-forth stalemate. Hoskins struck again for the Gators, but then Darien followed this up with goals from Colette Quinn and Humphrey putting Darien up 7-6 at the half.

Both teams converted on free positions and play-up opportunities, back and forth for the next 25 minutes. The lead never extended more than one goal for either side until the final five minutes of play.

The freshman Anna Von Kennel caught a pass in front of the crease and scored on Radebaugh to put Darien up 13-11 with only four minutes to play.

St. Paul’s got one back with the senior captain, number 3 player in the class of 2023, Natalie Shurtleff scoring off the give and goal to cut it down to 13-12.

St. Paul’s had to win the draw with 1:22 to play and go on the offense to try and tie the game.

Darien won the draw however, while trying to bring it into the zone the Wave turned it over, and the Gators gained possession. Timeout for Gators head coach Mary Gagnon with 49.7 seconds left gave the Gators one last shot to tie the game at the buzzer.

The Gators went around the perimeter out of the whistle, and with ten seconds left the Gators started their dodge. Sophomore Karina Herrera was the shooter for the Gators, eight on the clock, Herrera shot in the front of the cage, but Darien’s junior goaltender Hope Schoudel made the save of the game turning away Herrera and winning the game for the Wave. The junior committed to Duke to play goalie for the Blue Devils made the save of the game, and gave Darien the 13-12 victory over the St. Paul’s School for Girls.

Darien had a happy tip home from Maryland as they held their number one rank in the country, advanced to 7-0 on the season, and showed this is one of the Wave’s strongest teams.

Darien moves into FCIAC conferences play starting Thursday when they take on the Ridgefield Tigers from the DHS Stadium Field.

DARIEN 13,

ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (MD) 12

DARIEN 7 6 — 13

ST. PAUL’S 6 6 — 12

Scoring:
D—Chloe Humphrey 7g, Colette Quinn 3g, Ryan Hapgood 2g, Anna Von Kennel 1g

SP—Lauren Steer 3g, Natalie Shurtleff 3g, Marleigh O’Day 2g, Caroline Hoskins 2g, , Maggie Porter 1g, Frannie Hahn 1g

Goalies: D – Hope Schoudel (10 saves); SP – Susan Radebaugh (5 saves).

Records: Darien 7-0; St. Paul’s 11-2.