Friday night was the start of the 2016 playoffs. Girls lacrosse took on bitter rivals, Chantilly at Chantilly’s home field in what would turn out to be one of the best district games of the season. With a 5:30 start time underneath the cloudy skies and rain, the Cougars came into the game with something to prove. After making the state finals last year, much was expected of the team. But a somewhat under-achieving season ended the regular season with a record of just 4-6. Many were shocked by this as the Cougars had been a pre-season pick to challenge and return to the state title game. Girls lacrosse started out the season hot with a record of 4-2 heading into the last 4 games of the season. That’s when things started to fall apart for the Cougars, losing their last 4 games of the season with 2 crushing losses; a 10-12 loss to Chantilly and a 10-11 loss to Westfield. The Cougars still advanced through to the first round of the playoffs and were matched up against Chantilly.

Oaken entered the Friday night game as the underdog and came out firing on all cylinders. The Cougars took an early lead and things were looking bright despite the rain and gloom. Chantilly eventually tied it up and the first half was a see-saw battle in which teams traded goals until the halftime whistle blew. The score stood at 5-5, an accurate representation of the beautiful and hard display of lacrosse that both teams put on in the first half of play. Coming out the break, the Cougars really put on a show, taking another lead and holding it for almost all the second half; but like much of their season, a strong start didn’t mean too much. Chantilly was able to get a couple of late, easy finishes on the crease off of backdoor cuts to tie the game and send it into overtime. But the Cougars had one goal in mind; to get to put behind all the doubt and dominate in OT. Overtime in lacrosse is played with a golden goal rule, meaning the first team to score wins. The start of overtime was tense, with both teams missing a couple of chances, and with the Cougars finally gathering possession and settling the ball. They worked the ball along the perimeter while the crease was cutting and interchanging, trying to create openings when suddenly Stephanie Palmucci popped off the crease, threw a head fake and shot around the right side of the goalie. Palmucci stuck the shot. The Cougars went crazy, storming the field and hugging Palmucci in jubilation. The Cougars won with a score of 12-11 and advanced through to the next round, automatically qualifying for the regional playoff round.

The Cougars take on Robinson in the next round who beat them in the regular season by a score of 21-6. This could prove to be the Cougars toughest test of the season, but with great senior leadership and confidence riding on a high after the upset of Chantilly, the Oakton Cougars look poised to make a deep playoff run. After silencing some of the regular season critics, all is still to gain for Oakton as they look to redeem last year’s devastating loss and take home a state championship.