It wouldnt be a surprise if some of the Catonsville girls celebrated with a pizza for dinner after their 11-8 Class 4A-3A state semifinal win over Sherwood at Northeast High on Saturday afternoon.

After all, they heard the word enough from Comets coach Becky Clipp Cassilly, who employed a "pizza-and-one" defense designed to stop leading scorer Emily Kenul (67 goals, 37 assists). The Comets' defense did more than that by holding the Warriors (13-2) scoreless for the first 17:09 of the second half while their offense scored five straight goals to break a 5-5 halftime tie.

Catonsville (10-7) will play Severna Park in the state championship game at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on May 20 or 21.

We went straight into basketball mode because she (Kenul) is so good, she is very, very good, and she was working us on that crease, said Cassilly, noting the defense is like a box-and-one.

Kayla Wood did most of the defending on Kenul and she got some help from Trinity McPherson.

The rest of the defense, which included senior Chloe Corbitt, Lila Nazarian, Madi Lazorchak and Maddie Schwaab, responded with strong efforts along with goalie Savannah Cheuvront.

When the defense tried to switch later in the second half, the Warriors took advantage of it.

We talked to her (Cassilly) and they scored two goals, and we went back to the pizza and it worked, Corbitt said. She knows what shes talking about so we just listen to her.

The Comets offense also needed to step up when top scorer Brooke Stevens (44 goals, 32 assists) was injured and didnt return after suffering a knee injury with 4:03 left in the first half and the Comets trailing 5-4.

Lauren McDonald (3 goals, 2 assists) responded with an outstanding feed from behind the goal to Anderson Gill that tied it at 5-5 with 1:26 remaining in the half.

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Catonsville girls lacrosse reaches state semifinals behind strong defense