Oakton Girls Lacrosse Advances in Regional Tourney

HERNDON — The rain-soaked Oakton High athletic field was deemed unfit for play Tuesday night, so the Oakton girls lacrosse team traveled to Herndon to face Falls Church on a turf field in the first round of the Northern Regional Tournament.

The weather eventually cleared, but the Concorde District Champion Cougars  (13-5) stormed the field in aggressive fashion to dominate the Jaguars (5-9) behind an offensive attack led by Allie Turk and Kelsey Clarke, who each scored hat tricks, to advance to the semifinal with the 21-9 win. 

Falls Church struck first blood when Elena Johnson scored off an Oakton penalty from 7 yards out with 23:43 left in the half. But the Cougars tied it up 53 seconds later when Turk drilled one in the bottom of the net for the first of her three goals. The district champs went on a tear and within two and a half minutes, Oakton led 5-2.

Captain Carly Palmucci controlled the Cougars’ “Ocean” offensive scheme with poise and speed, as she served up her teammates with six assists in the first half alone.

“I definitely prefer giving my friends glory than myself,” Palmucci said. “We came out on top and that’s all I care about.”

Every time Oakton reached the 8-meter-arc, six Cougars formed a semi-circle and passed the ball with precision. A cutter would then cross into striking distance for the pass and one-time it into the net.

“We spread out as far as we can and kind of try and pretend were going in,” Clarke said. “But then we kind of back it up to see if we can get open people [to score].”

Coach Jean Counts game plan worked brilliantly as Clarke and Turk completed their hat tricks in the first 25 minutes to help give Oakton a huge lead at the half, 15-3.

“We have a couple girls who are really accurate passers and most of our goals, I’d say at least 60 percent come from a feed,” Counts said. “We're not really a one-on-one isolation team. They have the ability and can do it well — but their timing is excellent.”

Many of the starters came out of the game for Oakton in the second half and their replacements did a solid job picking up where they left off. But Kelley Rodgers and Kim Heffernan scored consecutive goals to put Oakton up 17-4, and led the Cougars with patience to maintain possession of the ball for the majority of the second half.

The Cougars would score four more to win the first round and advance to the semifinal of the regional tournament in hopes of grabbing another title and heading to states.

“We talked about how we were underrated our whole regular season and we wanted to prove ourselves and have no mercy in games,” Turk said. “We needed to show everyone who we are and bring out the best in everyone.”

Oakton plays at home against Stone Bridge at 7 p.m. May 19.