This fall, the Potomac School Panthers ended the season as they wanted, with two significant tournament playoff championships, not half-and-half like last year.
First, the girls high-school soccer team won the Independent School League’s AA Division tourney as the No. 2 seed, then was the top seed and finished first in the sixth annual, four-team Northern Virginia Independent state soccer tournament.
A year ago, Potomac School won the ISL tourney, then finished second in the state event.
“It's a first. We’ve done something that we never did before – we pulled off triple championships in one season,” Potomac School coach Ross McEwen said. “We won both tournaments and the ISL regular-season title.”
In the state tourney, the Panthers (13-2-4) were 2-0 with two home matches. They blanked No. 4 seed St. Paul VI Catholic, 3-0, in the first round, then edged the third-seeded and two-time defending champion Bishop O’Connell Knights, 3-2, in the Oct. 9 tourney final.
Potomac School lost to O’Connell in the past two state finals, on the Panthers’ home field.
Potomac School built leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the state final as Alden Marin scored all three goals with assists from Reagan Exley.
“We played solid defense, passed well and Alden and Exley took care of the scoring,” McEwen said. “They had those two goals, but we did what we wanted to do. We didn’t want them to beat us in this game three years in a row.”
O’Connell coach Alberto Starace credited the Panthers for “beating us in the midfield.”
Against Paul VI, Alden Marin scored two goals and Chloe Lee the other. Reagan Exley had two assists and Lee one.
Potomac School has played in the state-tourney finals all six seasons of the tourney’s existence, finishing second four times and winning in 2019 and this fall. The 2020 event wasn’t held because of the pandemic.
In the ISL tournament, a change in strategy paid off with a championship for the Panthers. They made a switch to become more defense-oriented. The approach helped the No. 2 seed win the title for the second straight time, going 3-0 and outscoring opponents 6-1 with two shutouts, including a 1-0 victory over No. 5 seed Holton-Arms in the Nov. 3 title match at Episcopal High School in Alexandria.
“We wanted to clog up the defense and lock it down back there. Then we would counter by letting our talented attackers on offense attack,” said McEwen, in his 17th year leading the team. “We felt confident with our lineup that would work.”
Potomac School goalie Amory Imperatore had to make a few saves against Holton, but otherwise the defense, led by Abby Collis (bound for Williams College to play) kept the ball away from the Panthers’ keeper.
Potomac School scored its goal with 30 minutes left in the second half when Exley rocketed a crossing shot into the far left corner of the goal.
“I got a good ball from Abby [Collis] and I was able to get under the ball and get off a good shot,” said Exley, who will play in college at Yale University. “We were really focused on locking it down on defense.”
The Panthers entered the tournament having shared the regular-season ISL title with top seed Georgetown Visitation.
The Panthers routed No. 7 seed Georgetown Day, 4-1, in the first round, then blanked No. 4 seed Maret, 1-0, in the semifinals on a goal by Megan Rowe off assists from Charlotte Shebby and Lee.
The Panthers adjusted their lineup a bit in the semifinal because starting striker Alden Marin, a top scorer, missed the game because of illness.
Against Georgetown Day, Lee scored two goals and Marin and Exley one each.
Exley had 11 goals and 12 assists this season. Lee had 16 goals and five assists and Marin had 16 goals and five assists. Ally Griswold also has scored several.
Brooke Parry, Charlotte Parry, Margit Crittenberger, Grayson Crittenberger, Selma Elrefai and Maya Swanston were other players for Potomac School that saw action in the ISL final.
NOTES: All told, the Panthers were 5-0 in the postseason and lost just one of their final 13 matches . . . Potomac School had an unbeaten 3-0-3 record against Washington Catholic Athletic Conference teams this season, including four road matches. The WCAC is regarded by some as a better athletic conference than the ISL . . . Overall, Potomac School has won six ISL tournament titles in program history.
