By Nelson Coffin
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Maryvale’s intention to upset the IAAM soccer apple cart came to full fruition Sunday night.
The defending B Conference champs not only jumped to the A Conference for the 2025 campaign, they were in it to win it as they proved by outlasting Mercy in a 5-4 shootout after the rivals deadlocked, 1-1, in 100 minutes of play in the championship game at Calvert Hall’s Paul Angelo Russo Stadium in Towson.
“Maryvale soccer has reached the summit (of the IAAM),” said an emotional Colin Devlin, who just completed his 22nd year coaching at the school. “I have a wonderful staff. I just say ‘yes’ or ’no’ now, they make a lot of the decisions now. And the kids played their hearts out for me. They just wanted it.”
The upstart Lions earned a second playoff seed with a 6-2 league record and a 9-3-1 overall mark heading into the final against the top-seeded Magic (13-2-1, 7-2), applying pressure from the get-go and never relenting on the way to earning the title in dramatic fashion.
In the first half and the early portions of the second, Maryvale had the better of play and nearly broke through on sophomore forward Clara McCormick’s wicked diagonal shot with 13:48 left in the opening period that was turned away on a fingertips-deflection by Magic senior goalie Sarah Graham .
Mercy picked up the pace in the second half, jumping on top, 1-0, on freshman midfielder Megan Brannan’s 20-yard drive, assisted by junior forward Ava Hartman, that just eluded the outstretched arms of junior keeper Bella Kail and nestled softly into the net for the game’s first goal.
With Graham making a slew of key saves and senior Kendall Atwood, juniors Isabella Kennedy, Miranda Pross and Madeline Hoilman and sophomores Molly Davis doing their part, the surging Lions were kept at bay until a foul in the penalty area with just under 11 minutes remaining in regulation changed everything.
Senior Laney Clements calmly converted the ensuing penalty kick to Graham’s right to knot the game at 1-1.
Mercy authored several retorts, the last of which was sizzled off the foot of senior forward Aubrey O’Connell and into Kail’s arms in the 79th minute
There would be more opportunities from both sides in the two 10-minute overtime periods that Graham and Kail thwarted.
In the shootout, though, it was Kail who had a defining moment by snuffing Hartman to open the shootout.
Although freshman forward Lexi Wojcik, Kennedy, Davis and Hoilman all converted their shots, Maryvale countered with successful offerings by Clements, junior midfielder Olivia D’Alessandro, sophomore defender Avery Batelka, Kail and McCormick to sew up the title.
“It was just super nerve-wracking,” McCormick said about her shootout heroics. “I don’t even know what I was thinking going into it. My mind was kind of blank. We had been practicing penalties and I knew my team had my back and everybody was so supportive.”
Kail’s save to get things started in the shootout was another pivotal moment in a game full of them.
“I could tell where she (Hartman) was going,” she said. “I had to stay calm and just go for it, and it paid off.”
Mercy coach Tom Durkin said that he thought his team was nervous early in the game.
“But in the second half I thought we rebounded and created a lot of good chances,” he continued. “We got up, 1-0, and we created a lot of really good chances to get a second one, and against a team like Maryvale, you have to try to put them away, and we just couldn’t put them away.”
