SMITHSBURG — For the 10th time in program history, Calvary won the Mason-Dixon Christian Conference (MDCC) championship, defeating Grace 4-1 in Saturday’s title game at Smithsburg High’s Coach Carroll Reid Field.
Sammy Scritchfield scored all four goals for the Eagles (18-3-1).
“We had a great game,” Calvary head coach Dave Ziler said. “We played a whole team effort, Eli (Ziler), Gerald Mihailovich, our defensive line and obviously Sammy put a game together. It was unbelievable, whole team effort. They set out at the beginning of the year to do this, and they did it.”
The first score came at the 28:52 mark of the first half off an assist from Silas Leith.
With 7:36 left before halftime, Scritchfield split two defenders and fired a shot in the bottom left corner to double Calvary’s lead.
The Knights (10-8) answered with 2:27 to play in the half off a cross from Leo Leumegni to Landon Downie on a shot down the middle.
Grace had several chances inside of about 25 yards in the first half, but a stout defensive performance limited the Knights to four shots on goal.
“The defense played awesome, our defense was able to recover and overcome,” coach Ziler said. “They did a great job. They figured it out and they stopped the runs and a great team effort.”
Leading 2-1 at halftime, Scritchfield added a key insurance goal at the 22:47 mark of the second half.
Jake Zewatsky set it up, and Scritchfield finished the shot in the bottom right corner.
Scritchfield concluded the scoring at the 14:28 mark off Jake MacGray’s assist.
“He’s tough, even when they man mark him with four or five guys, he still figures out how to get through,” coach Ziler said of Scritchfield. “What do you say, best striker in the area.”
The Eagles led 9-8 in shots on goal while Grace led 6-5 in corner kicks.
Peyton Poland recorded seven saves, most of them on diving plays inside the box for Calvary.
Aiden Koontz finished with four saves for the Knights.
Before the game, the MDCC announced the All-Conference teams.
Scritchfield was named the Player of the Year after surpassing Ryan Chaney’s program single season record of 47 goals set in 2004.
Scritchfield has 52 goals and 11 assists, totaling 115 points.
“It means so much to me,” Scritchfield said. “I take it right to heart, all of us take it right to heart. We all have passion, we have heart. This is what we worked for back in June, running three miles each day, and it paid off.”
Mihailovich, Poland and Ziler earned first-team selections while Leith was a second-team selection.
The conference championship is the 10th in Calvary’s history and Saturday marked the 13th appearance in the title game.
The Eagles won the MDCC title in 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Calvary played six area public schools this season and went 2-1-3.
The Eagles stunned then-No. 2 Mountain Ridge 4-3 on Sept. 18 and played a scoreless draw with then-No. 4 Frankfort on Aug. 28,
“I think it made us better, I think they exposed our weak points,” Mihailovich said. “All the public schools are good, so even though we lost to some of them, it exposed some of our weak points and allowed us to patch them for this game. I think our weak point was positioning. Some players didn’t match the position they were put in. I think it helped our offense, where to put our offense, how to switch them mid-game. And our defense, we were holding the line too high up on certain teams.”
Coach Ziler said after the Mountain Ridge game that it meant more than winning the conference title.
“I would say I still feel the same, but this is special,” Mihailovich said. “Mountain Ridge was a big statement because no one believed in us.”
Calvary concludes the season at the NCSAA (National Christian School Athletic Association) tournament in Xenia, Ohio, beginning on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
The Eagles open the tournament against Algoma Christian of Kent City, Michigan.