Subscribe
Community
La Plata-Stone 3A South girls matchup could yield dark horse
Regional high school playoff previews
Friday, Oct. 30, 2009
|
|
E-Mail This Article
Huntingtown may have captured the top seed in the Class 3A South region girls soccer bracket –– featuring seven Southern Maryland Athletic Conference teams –– but it was Northern that received the favorable treatment from the playoff draw as if it had a No. 1 next to its name.
Second-seeded Northern (9-1-2), the two-time reigning champion of the 3A South, is an automatic choice to advance back to the regional final for a chance at a third straight berth into the state semifinals.
A pair of Prince George's County programs in Friendly and Largo –– hailing from a league that lacks the talent and competitiveness of the SMAC –– clash in the quarterfinals of the lower half of the bracket that Northern is situated in. Northern's quarterfinal opponent is the winner of the Westlake-Lackey first-round game slated for Friday. Westlake (0-12) and Lackey (1-11) have a combined one win in 23 games, and both handily lost to Northern during the regular season by 7-0 and 6-0 outcomes, respectively.
Beating Westlake or Lackey would advance Northern to the regional semifinals against the winner of the Friendly-Largo encounter. Northern would be an overwhelming favorite in that game, too.
The regional semifinals contest for Huntingtown, should it remain alive, would be against a pair of dark-horse foes in fourth-seeded Stone or randomly fifth-seeded La Plata.
Northern was the only SMAC team not to lose to Leonardtown in the regular season, finishing in a nothing-nothing tie. The only club to defeat Northern this year is North Point (9-3) by a 2-1 slight margin. North Point is randomly seeded fifth in the 4A East and poses a threat to any of the top-four seeds in that bracket.
Leonardtown will obviously be targeted by its 4A East competition, not solely because it is the reigning regional champion and has won the field in two of the last three years. During those 2006 and 2008 postseason runs, Leonardtown also celebrated state championships after winning the region.
The most intriguing of the quarterfinal regional games among the SMAC constituency involves archrivals Stone (5-5-3) and La Plata (5-6-1) in the 3A South.
Stone eked out a 1-0 home win over La Plata in September, and after a history of battling for bragging rights in Charles County over the years, the regional playoff draw has them squaring off again –– the winner emerging as a scary foe in the field.
"I think it was a good draw for both teams," La Plata head coach Chris Butler said about his team's matchup against Stone. "It should be an exciting game. Stone is definitely one of our archrivals, especially in the county. In order for us to be successful, we have to play for 80 minutes. We have played very well in stretches during a game, and we have disappeared at times.
"The open playoff format gives teams like ours to make up for a disappointing season. My players and I our motivated for this second season."
In the 2A South, Calvert (7-4) earned the third seed and has a first-round bye. Calvert then plays the winner of the McDonough-Patuxent game, featuring the SMAC's other two teams in the region.
