Roles Reversed: Charm Beat Charging 16-15

The Maryland Charm had 21 days between their first loss to the New York Charging and the rematch. The Women’s Lacrosse League scheduling made it so the Charm played the Charging back-to-back, only it was three weeks apart.  

On Saturday, the Charm won the offensive battle at Northwestern’s Medicine Field at Martin Stadium 16-15. Here’s how they got it done.

DON’T COUNT OUT A CHALLENGE

Brigid Duffy shot with 1:44 remaining in the game. It was tied at 15 when she cut through the field to be dead on with the Charging cage. She shot, and the ball bounced in and out of the goal. On the field it wasn’t called a goal, but after Maryland head coach Emily Parros challenged the play and the officials went to video review, Duffy’s dagger was ruled good.

“Shoot your shot, man,” Parros said in a postgame interview about her decision to challenge.

After that, New York’s Izzy Scane had an opportunity to tie it with about 40 seconds remaining, but the opportunity went wide.

ALL ALLY

The first four goals were scored by players named Ally. Maryland’s Ally Kennedy scored the first two. One was a classic Kennedy look in transition bounding down the field. The other was a twizzler.

The other Ally? That would be Allison Reilly. In her debut game for the Charging, she scored four goals. Three of those came in the first quarter. Two of those were scored 33 seconds apart. Reilly tacked on an assist to her stat sheet, too, leading the Bulls in points on the day.

“She’s just going hard, and she’s playing with no fear,” Charging head coach Colleen Magarity said.  

Reilly played college ball at Army, where she holds the program’s all-time points record (374).

NOT PURPLE ANYMORE

For the Charging, many players felt right at home back at Northwestern. Ten players (Scane, Emerson Bohlig, Riley Campbell, Erin Coykendall, Madison Doucette, Grace Fujinaga, Lauren Gilbert, Kendall Halpern, Sam Smith, Delaney Sweitzer and Sammy White) as well as Magarity and assistant coach Charlie Leonard were Wildcats.

They couldn’t get it done at their old stomping grounds, though.  

Maryland attacker Ashley Humphrey reminded everyone in a pregame interview that the ‘Cats don’t scare her.

“I ended my college career on a national championship against Northwestern, so I’m all good,” she said.

Humphrey had trouble scoring against New York when they played on Long Island earlier this season, but she had three assists against the Charging Saturday.

NO. 2 FOR NO. 2

If you haven’t seen former Wildcat and Charging attacker Erin Coykendall’s BTB from this game, it made SportsCenter’s top players at No. 2. The shot was unbelievable off a two-man-game pass from Scane. Coykendall also scored in the first quarter.  

“If that’s not on SportsCenter, I will be upset,” Charging goalie Madison Doucette said.

The Charging now must depend on others to make it into the WLL playoffs, as they have no more games. A win against the Charm would have meant that they would for sure be in the mix.

For the Maryland side, this game was a must win. If the Charm hadn’t won, then their chances of making it to the playoffs before the Charging game were 6 percent. Now that they’ve gotten revenge, the Charm look to play the Boston Guard at 8:30 p.m. on Friday in Fairfield, Conn., for their last regular-season game.