Bishop England downs Waccamaw

PAWLEYS ISLAND — Bishop England has played in the girls state championship every year since 1992, with the lone exception of 2001. The Lower State's representation in this year's Class AA-A title game will be more of the same.

Waccamaw was unable to unseat the Bishops on Tuesday night at home, falling 1-0 in the Lower State

Championship game. It all happened with at least the hint of controversy, or as Bishop England coach Dave Snyder called it, a bit of luck.

After a scoreless 54 minutes, the Bishops were attacking the Waccamaw goal. Warriors keeper Lunden Simpson dove away from the goal to stop a shot, but as she fell on the ball, another Waccamaw defender and the Bishops forward converged, knocking the ball back out toward the front of the box.

There, Bishop England's Lizzie Daly was waiting for the ball. She lofted a shot toward the defenseless goal, giving her team the lone score of the game.

Bishop England will play Christ Church on Friday for the state title.

The controversy stemmed around Simpson, who was injured on the play and unable to get up. Two of the officials debated whether or not to allow the score to stand, and the decision was made to leave the goal on the scoreboard.

"She's on the ground hurt, and the other girl just hit it in the net," Waccamaw all-state defender Candler Smith said after seeing the play from up close. "We were talking to the refs, and they were considering it. They were saying the goalie was down when it was shot. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but they were (talking about) whether it was one of our players who collided with (Simpson) or one of their players."

Much of that would have been a moot point had Bishop England's defense not controlled the game as well as it did. Waccamaw entered the Lower State championship after winning its first two games of the playoffs by a combined score of 19-0.

Instead, second-seeded Bishop England's trio of all-state defenders, goalkeeper Erika Christensen and defenders Abigail Thompson and Kerry Puckett, kept Player and Murphy in check.

Brennan added that the Bishops may have had some extra help in that Player injured her back in the Lower State semifinal matchup against Academic Magnet and was approximately 85 percent against Bishop England.

Whether Snyder knew of the injury or not, his defensive scheme remained the same.

"We needed to make sure we didn't lose sight of them at any point," Snyder said. "In my opinion, the two forwards (Taylor and Murphy) — those are the two best combination forwards I've seen this year. You give them a lot of respect, and you know you have to look out for them."

It will likely be the same next season, when Player and Murphy both return for their senior years. Still, that might not be enough solace for Brennan, who fell just short of missing out on a state title opportunity.

"We've said that," Brennan said, referring to his returning players, "Three years in a row now."