Madison Rolls Into Semifinals with 19-7 Win Over Loudoun Valley

For maybe the first time all season, the Madison Warhawks struggled to win draws and were out of sync in their passing game. And For the 20th time this year, nothing but the final score mattered.

With a 19-7 rout of Loudoun Valley on Friday at Marshall High School, the girls lacrosse team advances to the Virginia AAA semifinals for the first time ever. Allison Hahn scored a goal to go with her five assists and Megan Bisson scored four times as Madison overcame a sluggish start to beat the Vikings -- who eliminated the Warhawks in the state quarterfinals last year -- with a 15-7 win.

“Last year was the first time we got to this level, and they were really scared coming in last year, and this year I think they switched sides, where they knew they had the skill to come out and take this game, and they were putting a lot of pressure on themselves to play the best that they could,” Madison Coach Amanda Counts said. “Once they understood to slow it down and be patient, things went a little more smoothly and more to our plan.”

Andrea Mustacchio put Loudoun Valley on the board first thanks to a Madison turnover, but the Warhawks settled down just enough to score the next five goals. Mustacchio ended that run with another score, and as the Warhawks regressed to making long passes into traffic, the Vikings were able to pull within 6-4.

Loudoun Valley had a chance to swing momentum even more in its favor, but Taylor Rivera-Silva made two saves during that mini-run to limit the damage. Hahn then began doing what she does best and fed Julia Kehoe and Katie Kerrigan for goals during a 6-0 run to close out the first half. The Warhawks scored four more times in the first five minutes after the break, and the 10-goal lead was more than enough to put things out of reach. Kerrigan finished with three goals and two assists, and Carly Frederick chipped in three goals. Despite Madison’s domination all season, Counts still has trouble expecting to win entering each game.

“I have [nerves] for every game no matter who we’re playing” she said. “I try and do my best to hide it, but [the girls] know how excited and jumpy I am before the game.”

Draw control, an aspect of the game typically dominated by Hahn and Alex Condon, proved troublesome on Friday. Though Rivera-Silva only had to make five stops all game and Savannah Bentley anchored a strong defensive effort, frequently clearing the ball from deep in their own end was something the Warhawks haven't had to do much this year. Even though Counts can’t scout teams from other parts of the state the way she can in the Northern Region, she doesn’t plan on changing much of her gameplan.

“We haven’t really made too many adjustments,” Counts said. “We do our best to introduce everything we can possibly at the beginning of the season and then slowly reintroduce some things so the girls can really fine tune them and put everything together in certain situations.”

As the competition stiffens deeper in the playoffs, Counts says close games,, are what her team needs to get accustomed to, even if it appears at this point that few teams in the state can provide much of a challenge.

“We’ll probably work a little bit on what to do should we find ourselves in a crunch time situation, either where we’re up or down, but a narrow margin,” Counts said. “Other than that it’s more focus on the basics.”