In a contest that will likely serve as a preview of the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Field Hockey Championship game later this month at Great Mills High School, the Leonardtown High squad upended visiting Patuxent High 4-0 on Tuesday afternoon thanks largely to a pair of Raiders with the same first name.
Leonardtown (7-1 overall, 6-0 in SMAC) got a pair of goals from senior Lily Coombs and junior Lily Mitchell had a pair of assists and contributed the final goal as the Raiders continued their perfect play in SMAC.
Leonardtown, which also got one goal from Tessa Gray late in the first half, has yet to yield a goal in conference play.
Coombs, who has committed to West Chester University for field hockey and will officially sign her National Letter of Intent next month, scored twice on assists from Mitchell, who recently verbally committed to Towson University. After proving her skills as a facilitator through the first three quarters, Mitchell capped the scoring with a goal early in the fourth quarter.
“On my first goal, Lily sent in the corner and I was able to get a good look and then low shot,” Coombs said. “Then on the second, Lily made a great pass to me on a possession and I was able to get it past their goalie. It was great to have that level of competition today. They’re a really good team and several of them play club with us.”
Patuxent (6-1, 6-1) needed overtime to best longtime SMAC and county rival Huntingtown last week and the Panthers gave the Raiders a serious test through the early stages. Coombs broke the scoreless deadlock with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter then Coombs and Gray each added one in the second period for a 3-0 halftime advantage.
“I’m always happy to play a team like Leonardtown,” Patuxent coach Lynn Powell said. “They’re a larger school, so for us to be able to compete with them says a lot about your girls. They really played hard all the way to the end. They beat us 3-0 in the first half, but it was only 1-0 in the second half. We’ll probably see them again [in the SMAC Championship] and that will help us get ready for regions and states when we play schools our size.”
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Mitchell added a goal to her resume in the fourth to account for the 4-0 tally. Leonardtown has dominated the SMAC during its three seasons under Christine Mitchell, with its lone blemish ironically in the conference championship game last fall when it fell to Northern 1-0 despite dominating play on that occasion.
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