O'Connell Soccer

O'Connell Wins 4th Straight League Title

By B.J. Koubaroulis

Special to The Washington Post

Saturday, October 27, 2007; E07

O'Connell senior defender Brandi Lacoe wore the evidence of her efforts yesterday like a wet badge: blades of grass and dirt stains on her face, a rain- and sweat-soaked jersey, dinged-up shin guards.

Each was a tiny trophy left over from the battles she fought holding St. John's All-Met forward Tiffany McCarty scoreless in the Knights' 2-0 victory over the top-ranked Cadets at Bishop Ireton.

McCarty, a Florida State-bound All-Met, has scored 183 goals and 78 assists in her career and is averaging 1.5 goals per game in a high-powered Cadets attack that is scoring 3.27 goals per game this season.

"I enjoy marking her because we have the same exact speed," said Lacoe, who is considering Penn State, Florida and N.C. State. "We give each other good competition and I think we are getting each other ready for college."

Junior midfielder Danielle Corey scored her 19th goal and added an assist to provide the Knights all the offense they would need.

The victory gave third-ranked O'Connell its fourth consecutive regular season Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship and the top seed in next week's conference tournament.

The Knights (15-3-3, 13-1-2 WCAC) are allowing 0.62 goals per game, have shut out six of their past 10 opponents and have 11 shutouts this season.

St. John's (18-2-2, 13-1-2 WCAC) suffered its first loss since it fell, 1-0, to Pennsylvania power Villa Joseph Marie on Sept. 16.

In the 34th minute, Corey had her low corner kick bounced out of the penalty box.

"It came back to me and I just curved it in," said Corey, whose second right-footed 25-yard send-in bent into the back right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead. "This helps us confidence-wise a lot to know we can beat them and they are our big rivals."

No. 3 O'Connell 2 No. 1 St. John's 0 McCarty's Mark: Cadets forward Tiffany McCarty (183 career goals) has already passed the scoring records in Virginia and D.C. and needs six more goals to pass former McDonogh star Laurie Schwoy (188 goals from 1992 to '95) to set the Maryland record.