In a match dominated mainly by stellar defense on both sides of the field, Jacinda Connor capitalized on the best scoring opportunity held by either squad in Saturday’s IAAM B Conference soccer final at Calvert Hall's Russo Stadium.
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With 35:44 left in the match, the Roland Park Country School's Jacinda Connor lofted a left-footed shot from the left side of the penalty area into the right corner to lift the Reds to a 1-0  victory over St. Paul’s School for Girls (10-5).

The senior midfielder set up the scoring strike with a hard charge at a Gators' defender, who was unable to control a long through-ball.

Connor then gained control of the ball, slipped past the defense, and sent her arching shot into the net to secure the second overall conference title and first since 2018 for the Reds (14-4-1).
 
“I thought maybe this could be a chance, so I decided to try and take it,” said Connor, whose squad entered the tournament as the top seed. “I tried to head it instead of trying to take a shot. I kind of got hit in the chest, but I was like, `I’ve got to keep it going. This could be the one chance you get.’

“I thought if I could . . .  just get a little volley just to the corner it could be in. No negative thoughts were going through my mind (such as) `What if I miss this? This could be the one chance.’ Seeing it go in there was amazing.”

For much of the contest, it appeared that no balls would be destined to find the back of the net as both defenses controlled and cleared nearly every potentially dangerous through-ball or timely pass.

That was especially true of Roland Park’s quintet of Ella Kowitz, Brianna Glick, Nikki Boyd, Taylor Goldstein, and Lucy Waldron, who limited the Gators to no shots on goal and just a pair of corner kicks.
 
“This game, we were hungry; we were ready for it,” Reds coach Gaby Davis said. “Everyone was really excited about it. Our defense has been an absolute brick wall all year.”
 
The St. Paul’s defense was equally stingy, surrendering five shots on goal, with a handful of those being long-distance free kicks. Junior midfielder Isabel Shurtleff had her team’s best opportunity following a deflection on a free kick, but her attempt sailed high and wide.

“We were turning the corner, but we weren’t getting our corner kicks that we’re used to,” said St. Paul’s coach Joie Gill, whose squad tagged Roland Park with its lone league setback this fall in a 2-1 victory on Oct. 18. “It came down to (that) they broke us down, and they scored, but it wasn’t that my team’s effort wasn’t there. They played really hard for the entire game. It just didn’t fall our way.”