News & Notes

PAGE 10 |FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 3, 2021

LOCAL

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Mustang Girls Win 1st State Title in Nearly 10 Years

by Matt Delaney

Falls Church News-Press

As unusual and unwelcome as a Covid-cautious season could be, the girls basketball team for the City of Falls Church’s high school was happy to walk away from it with a Class 3 state title after a 65-49 victory over Spotswood High School on Saturday night.

It was the program’s first state championship in almost a decade.

“We talked a lot about being really thankful for the opportunity of even being able to play, and then the fact that we worked through the whole season and it culminated with the state championship, it’s just the icing on the cake,” head coach Chris Carrico said.

The Mustangs’ “confident, but not cocky” motto was what guided them to an undefeated season at 16-0, and one that, after glancing at their record, seemed largely uncompetitive. Only William Monroe High School provided a viable threat in hindsight, with the Mustangs’ 44-33 home win over the Dragons on Jan. 22 being their smallest margin of victory.

But Saturday’s championship game against reigning Class 3 state champions, Spotswood High School, looked primed to spoil the girls’ perfect season early on.

The Washington Post reported that the Trailblazers sprang out to a 9-2 lead, and had the Mustangs off-kilter with their full court press.

“For the first five or six minutes of the game, we got sped up [by Spotswood],” Carrico said. “They came up with a full court press so we turned the ball over a couple of times, and we couldn’t make our free throws, which would’ve helped calm our nerves and stabilize our game on the court.”

Once Carrico called a timeout to settle some of the butterflies in his team’s stomach, he saw the girls ease into their style of play. From then until halftime, the Mustangs outscored Spotswood by 11 points, giving the Falls Church crew a 31-27 lead at the break.

A little breathing room emboldened the Mustangs defense to clamp down, with rotations tightening up and the Trailbalzers shooters forced to take contested jumpers. Another big change was their improvement on the glass, with the girls’ bigs snagging rebounds after Spotswood’s misses and helping notch 17 offensive rebounds on the other end.

Entering the fourth quarter up 49-33, the Mustangs took one final plunge to put the game away for good.

“Halfway through the fourth quarter, we went up by as much as 24 points,” Carrico said. “We were able to play the type of game that we wanted in the second half.”

The title is the Mustangs’ first since the 2011-12 season. It’s also Carrico’s first as a head coach of the program he’s led for three years now.

Sophomore forward Elizabeth Creed led the Mustangs with 24 points, followed by guards junior Bella Paradiso and sophomore Peyton Jones with 12 and junior forward Megan Tremblay with 11. Creed also shot 67 percent from the field, helping lead the team to make 47 percent of their shots overall, and grabbed seven rebounds.

THE MUSTANGS pose with the trophy after toppling Spotswood High School 65-49 on Saturday night. It was the first championship the high school program has won since the 2011-12 season

(Photo: Courtesy FCCPS Photo/Matt Hills)

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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New Citrus Options Join Arlington Lions Charity Sale

Honey and Royal Tangerines (formerly “Temples”) and Valencias are joining its line up of products that are a part of the Northwest Arlington Lions’ citrus direct-to-you fundraising effort on Feb. 8 for ordering online thru March 31. Other citrus products for sale are Honeybells, Cara Caras, Red Grapefruit and Mandarins along with Vermont maple syrup and Georgia pecans that offers direct shipping to customers. For more information, call 703-5281130.

Spring Lawn Care Seminar Being Held on Friday

Interested participants can learn what they can do now to improve and manage their lawn to make it a more environmentally friendly, less resource-intensive part of their home garden during this virtual event on Friday, Feb. 26 from 10 – 11:30 a.m. Extension Master Gardener Joyce Hilton will discuss the best types of grasses for the Northern Virginia area, specific springtime turf management practices, nutrient management and soil testing, and basic pest and disease management. Free. RSVP at mgnv. org/events/ to receive a link to participate.

Boundary Between McLean & Langley High Adjusted

The Fairfax County School Board voted to approve a boundary adjustment to alleviate overcrowding at McLean High School that was presented to the community as Option B. The boundary adjustment will realign students in the Colvin Run Elementary School split feeder area, a portion of the Spring Hill Elementary split feeder area, and a portion of Westbriar Elementary from Longfellow Middle-McLean High to Cooper Middle-Langley High. This adjustment identifies an estimated 190 students at the high school level and 78 students at the middle school level.

The Board voted to phase in the changes as follows: Rising seventh grade students will attend Cooper Middle in the 2021-22 school year, with rising eighth graders grandfathered to remain at Longfellow Middle in the 2021-22 school year. Both seventh and eighth grade students will attend Cooper Middle in the 2022-23 school year. Rising tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders in the area will be grandfathered and remain at McLean High. The high school boundary change will begin with rising ninth grade students in the 2021-22 school year; ninth and tenth grade students in the 2022-23 school year; ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade students in the 2023-24 school year; and ninth through twelfth grade students in the 2024-25 school year. Rising ninth graders residing in the area changed will have the option to attend Langley High in 2021-22 or be grandfathered at McLean High with transportation provided through twelfth in the 2024-25 school year. The option chosen for the 2021-22 school year will determine the school through the 2024-25 school year and will not be able to be changed.

The boundary adjustments will take effect in the 2021-22 school year with the phasing and grandfathering adopted.

LAST WEDNESDAY, troops #2259 and #50066 joined forces to deliver cookies and $800 that they raised for their “Hometown Heroes,” the Children’s Hospital at Fairfax Inova. The money was raised in honor of Millie Owens, in troop 2259, who was a patient in January 2020. Millie’s surgeon, Dr. Leon Moores, and her oncologist, Dr. Varela, joined the girls to give out socially-distanced hugs and to receive the cookies. Millie is thriving, fully healed and grateful for her troop and their leaders who support her during good times and hard times. (P����: C������� J��� O����)

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