St. Stephen's/St. Agnes edges Georgetown Visitation for the ISL field hockey title By Joey LoMonaco November 2 at 4:50 PM The sermon St. Stephen's/St. Agnes Coach Ali Beach preached during a first-half timeout in the Independent School League title game was about as blunt as a field hockey stick to the cranium. "Stop playing stupid," she told her Saints, who had just yielded a penalty corner in a scoreless contest. Start using your brains. You're not getting out-talented, but you could get outsmarted. St. Stephen's/St. Agnes heeded Beach's message and blanked Georgetown Visitation, 1-0, at Bullis School in Potomac to claim its 12th ISL title in the past 13 years. The Saints (17-2-1) scored with 3 minutes 35 seconds left in the first half, when Olivia Pugh redirected a thigh-high shot in traffic. "Everything she said in that timeout, she was right," junior Ellie Carson said. We kind of lost our energy. We'd been looking forward to this game for so long, and we were so hyped on the bus ride here and in warmups. But in the beginning we were lacking, we weren't going hard. The Saints somehow managed to pick up the intensity in the first half while working directly into a cutting headwind that swept up unattended team jackets and plied a baseball cap off an assistant coach's head, sending the items skittering down the nearby track. St. Stephen's/St. Agnes earned 11 corners to three for the Cubs (15-3) and dominated possession throughout. The Saints drilled redirects the past few days of practice, placing three players in front of the cage and firing in ball after ball. When Pugh got her chance Sunday, she already knew her play. She held out her stick and nicked enough of an oncoming drive to score the only goal against Cubs keeper Grace Brightbill, her former middle school teammate. "I was just trying to implement what we've learned," she said. Positionally, I made sure I was in front of the defender, not too far out, not far in. The hugs and cheers comprising the Saints" initial victory celebration had fizzled when Beach's phone rang. On the other line was Episcopal Coach Jaye Locke, who informed her the Saints had secured the second seed and a home game in next week's Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament. That news sent the Alexandria-based squad into a frenzy. "I think with that ranking, it got us more hyped then we already were," Carson said.