Calvary defeats Bishop Walsh, 4-3; Baker scores hat trick

CUMBERLAND — It was a war of attrition at Rowan Field on Friday, and Calvary, with just nine players, won out over Bishop Walsh.

Dana Baker delivered a hat trick, and Millie Buckingham provided the go-ahead goal to power Calvary to a 4-3 victory over Bishop Walsh in Mason-Dixon Christian Conference action at Brother Stephen F. Paul Spartan Stadium.

“It’s a big win for us because we were playing with nine,” Calvary head coach Scott Weeks said. “Really proud of the girls. That should be impossible to win, but we did. We pulled it off.

“We were down early, and we came back, tried to encourage the girls to fight hard. It’s tough when you only have three up front and a lot of the green field in between.”

Calvary (4-3) trailed 1-0 at the half, with a goal by Bishop Walsh’s Aerianna Jackson with 7:33 remaining the lone tally on the scoreboard.

Baker broke free in transition for an equalizer 1:08 into the second half, and she gave the Eagles their first lead with a similar strike — this time a putback after an initial save by Cara Daniel — in the 50th minute.

Jackson leveled the margin again with 22:51 to play, taking advantage of an open goal after Calvary keeper Selah Livengood was knocked down in the box during the buildup of play.

That opened the door for Buckingham to play the role of hero. The eighth-grader chipped a shot from the edge of the box into the corner to give Calvary a 3-2 edge with 6:19 remaining.

“Millie is a very humble girl, very quiet girl,” Weeks said. “And she’s an eighth-grader, so that’s very special. This is her second goal of the season. She’s very reserved and quiet. Just a sweet girl, so that was really special for us.”

Baker found her hat trick in the 78th minute, and it came in handy when Bishop Walsh’s Hannah Wharton brought the Spartans to within one in the final minute.

That’s as close as the Spartans would get before the final whistle.

“Hats off to Calvary,” Bishop Walsh head coach James DeCarlo said. “From our experience from when we last had a fall season, we often played with nine or 10. Their goalkeeper was absolutely outstanding.”

Bishop Walsh rosters 10 freshmen and sophomores, and the Spartans were without three girls, leaving them with no bench.

Calvary was down to nine due to an injury to defender Elena Turley and another absence via a player on vacation.

The result was a contest that tested the clubs’ conditioning with the sun beating down on a warm evening and minimal wind, a rare occurrence atop Haystack Mountain.

“This was our fourth game of the week, so we are tired out,” Weeks said. “We played a couple of those down a player, so they’re coming into this game already tired. And I told them that the girls who were most in shape were going to win this game.”

Calvary finished with a 15-12 edge in shots and both teams had nine shots on goal. The Spartans had more corner kicks, 5-4.

Livengood made six stops in goal for Calvary, and Daniel had five.

“Hats off to our goalkeeper Cara,” DeCarlo said. “She played in the second half a little bit yesterday. It’s her first time playing goal. We’re fortunate that she’s a gamer.”

Calvary is at Heritage on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Bishop Walsh heads to Grace on Monday at 5:15 p.m.