Rams get it half-right in lacrosse win vs. Titans

Rockville prevails with fast start, steady finish

‘‘We needed to get back to the fundamentals,” she said. ‘‘Pass the ball, move and catch. Get the ground balls.”

A halftime ground ball drill paid off, as Rockville (3-1 record) opened the second half in Kensington with four more goals. Using fast, effective and aggressive play in the midfield, the Rams corralled loose balls, checked Einstein (1-2) into turnovers and used swift transition to fuel an offensive outburst. Emily Owen and Danielle Duplain scored three goals each, while Katie Li and Molly Carey tallied two scores apiece.

‘‘They responded well,” Jancewicz said. ‘‘We talked about playing our game at halftime and they went out and did it. They started passing well, and they worked together as a team. We have to focus on that all the time, and they did it well today.”

For Rockville, the new season has brought new personnel but the same expectations. In the past two years, the Rams could count on drawing their scoring from attacker Anna Schmidt, who tallied 150 goals during that period and earned All-Gazette second-team honors as a senior in 2007. Without her, the Rams have focused on spreading the ball around. Owen and Duplain finished their hat tricks thanks to nifty assists from Anna Weber (who had three) and Jen Civik. Their ball movement and speed made an impression of Einstein’s coach, Suzanne Murray.

‘‘We have not played a team as physical as they are and we had a hard time with it,” Murray said. ‘‘It was a good test, though, because we need to be able to play with teams like that if we want to win some games. We have to learn how to do it.”

Einstein has learned how to live without Grace Reinhalter, its scoring maven from the past three years, who has since graduated. A new crop of players has emerged and embraced the ethos of distributing the scoring. Junior Jordan Solomon scored twice, as did sophomore midfielder Miriam Stevens.

‘‘We don’t have that 50-goal scorer to rely on,” Murray said. ‘‘We have to get that offense from more people, and we have some freshmen that should be able to step into those roles. As we can get those combinations going, we could be tough to stop.”

The Rams hope that they can make themselves tough to stop, as well, in time for the playoffs. In each of the last two seasons, Rockville has won 10 games and earned a seed in the 2A West Region playoffs. But it hasn’t advanced past the semifinals in a region with teams from Frederick and Carroll counties, where lacrosse has a deeper history and tradition.

With that in mind, Jancewicz talked about what the Rams need to improve if they want to reach new heights.

‘‘We can still be a little tougher on defense,” she said. ‘‘We can’t give their offense room to maneuver. But this was a good effort. We can build on this.”