Chesapeake Girls Extend Playoff Run To 3A Final Four

This article will appear with photos in the November 6 print issue of the Pasadena Voice.

All season long Amy Dolan has been the player called on to take penalty kicks for the Chesapeake girls soccer team.

When the moment came for her to step to the spot against Rockville on November 2, with her Cougars locked in a 0-0 playoff battle and overtime looming just minutes away, Dolan knew she had to finish her chance.

“It was our last home game no matter what,” Dolan said, “and we just wanted to go out in a really good way.”

Dolan’s perfectly placed goal was the game-winner in Chesapeake’s 1-0 victory and the decisive act that punched Chesapeake’s ticket to the final four of the state’s 3A tournament.

A junior captain, Dolan’s kick carried with it the shared pursuits of players who will continue their bond for at least another week, into the state semifinals on November 9.

“It’s us wanting to play for each other,” Dolan said.

Chesapeake had duly earned its way to the point where a trip to the final four was at stake. Playoff wins over Stephen Decatur (3-0) and J.M. Bennett (3-1) in the final two weeks of October preceded the Cougars’ 6-2 win over Northeast in the 3A South Region II final on October 29, which vaulted the Cougars into the state’s eight-team tournament and gave them the region championship that has eluded them in past seasons.

Enter Rockville, which traveled to play the No. 1-seed Cougars at Cecil Rhodes Stadium.

Girls from Pasadena Soccer Club youth teams clamored for rights to be ball runners for the game and to witness their Cougar counterparts take the program as deep into the postseason as ever before.

The visiting Rams may as well have parked the bus they arrived on in front of the goal. They kept five players in the back line throughout the game in a concerted attempt to contain Chesapeake’s five-headed scoring monster of Leia Black, Ashley Chew, Brooke Hurst, Sammy Leo and Ella Shannon.

The plan worked, but only in the form of continuous last-gasp saves and clearances as the Cougars brought steady pressure throughout the game, forcing the ball into their attacking zone and holding the vast majority of possession. Sarah Cuttler was needed for one save in the first half, and Rockville’s chances were limited to less than a handful of counter-attacks all game. The Cougars attacked constantly, getting help with pushed-up defensive backs Dolan, Jessica Calvert, Julia Calvert, Megan Miller and Lauryn Hill as well as midfield play by Ryan Byle, Emily Barrett and Alexis Myers.

They just couldn’t break through for the score they needed. Into the second half, repeated balls forward and intricate passing in the midfield came up dry in front of goal.

Still, Chesapeake’s efforts felt less like a stymied game plan and more like a rising tide that couldn’t be stopped. With 14 minutes to play, Dolan sent a long ball into the box, Hurst got her head on it, and Leo ran it into the goal with her chest. Chesapeake celebrated, but the referee called a foul on Leo against Rockville’s goalie and disallowed the goal.

It was a questionable call, but Black said it didn’t rattle Chesapeake’s ambitions.

“I think when the goal got called back, it made us seem more hungry for a goal after that,” Black said. “With other teams it puts them down, but with us I think it pushed us a lot more.”

Moments later, Byle crushed a rolling ball from 25 yards away that beat the Rams goalkeeper but clanged the left post and bounced away—still no score.

In the 76th minute, with the specter of overtime threatening, the breakthrough came. Miller lofted a ball from near midfield that was headed down by Hurst into the path of Chew. Rockville’s goalie came out to challenge and crashed violently into Chew, sending her to the turf and drawing a whistle and a clear-cut penalty.

All Dolan had to do was decide which way to go with her shot, and if she didn't give away her thinking on the field, she wasn’t giving it away in postgame comments, either.

“I had a very hard time picking which side I would go to,” said Dolan. “I don’t think I picked it until I kicked it. It’s random every time.”

Her kick was past the extended arm of Rockville’s goalie, into the top corner of the goal, and Chesapeake was through to the last four in the state.

For a Chesapeake team that came close to breaking through to the state semifinals in each of the last two seasons but was unsuccessful, this year’s trip is hard-earned and deserved, and the team is on a streak of four playoff wins to get this far. Cougars coach Kevin Keeter said he knew the team had a window to compete at a high level with the player pool he has across grade levels, and he is happy to see this year’s group take the next step.

“They worked so hard,” Keeter said. “This group is just special, the chemistry and coming to work every day.”

He added that the tough local competition gave his Cougars the belief they needed.

“I think playing South River to a 2-2 tie, beating Broadneck, even playing Severna Park tough after the first few minutes, I think they got confidence,” Keeter said. “They got confidence they could play with the best teams. This has been a great group in terms of chemistry. They’ve come together this year.”

In coming together, they’ve done something Chesapeake soccer hasn’t seen in almost a generation: get to the final four. The Cougars last made the state semifinals in 2005, and this year will be the program’s fourth trip all-time (1991, ‘93).

Black said the team only knows one identity, and it’s to play for the Cougars around you.

“One of our cheers is, ‘family,’ and we’ve done it for the past few years, but this year I feel like it really is a real family,” Black said. “We play for each other and play our hearts out. We do everything for each other.”

Browse high-resolution prints and downloads of photos in this gallery. Photos by Colin Murphy