The girls varsity soccer team from Bowie High had plenty of reasons to have a let-down season in 2009. After all, 2008 ended with a state semifinal loss to Leonardtown, the eventual state champs. It would be easy for the girls to have felt deflated, especially since they also had to endure a coaching change with new coach Aaron Hankey taking over for Jonathan Keiler.

But the Lady Bulldogs did not get down and, in fact, proceeded to athletically punish opponents with a lot of scoring and timely saves in goal. The Lady Bulldogs lost their opening match of the season, 4-1, at Arundel, but never lost another game the rest of the season. They gave up just one goal in their toughest win of the season, a 2-1 road victory at Eleanor Roosevelt.

Playing for Hankey has not appeared to change anything that the Bowie girls had been used to under Keiler. "I want to take this team to where they were in the (state) semifinals," said Hankey. "We (took) this season game by game and just looked at it like each game is going to be close."

Hankey was hired during the summer to take over the Bowie junior varsity girls team. But Keiler and assistant coach Rosemary Benedetti stepped down and the reins were handed to Hankey, who teaches at Calverton Elementary and coaches wrestling at Bladensburg High. "I wanted to be the varsity coach anyway," he said.

And the beat does go on as it was demonstrated when the Bowie team defeated Gwynn Park, 10-0, for the county championship. Seasonlong standouts Mary Randolph (senior) and Maddie Simms (junior) notched four and three goals, respectively, in the title game. Lisa Ruyter, Marissa Greene and Taylor James also scored goals. Assists came from Randolph and Greene (three each), Simms, Allen and Alison Ryan. Sophomore Nikki Jenkins made six saves in goal.

The Lady Bulldogs' undefeated county season was good enough to earn the team a first-round bye in the state soccer tournament. In the second round, Bowie defeated Oxon Hill, 4-0. For those readers playing the home version of this story, the Lady Bulldogs have given up just one goal this season - to an out-of-county opponent.

Simms had a hat trick and Randolph finished things off with a goal in the second-round win. Assists came from Simms, Kristi Hepner, Erika Monroe and Lexi D'Orsaneo. Jenkins needed only to make two saves in the game while the Bowie offense peppered Oxon Hill with 24 shots, 14 of those directly on goal.

While Hankey is happy with how this fall has played out for his first varsity season as coach, he said that he feels this team can accomplish their ultimate goal of winning a state 4A title if the girls can carry out just a few objectives between now and Nov. 21, when the state title game will be played at UMBC.

"We need to play aggressive, but keep it simple, too," said Hankey. "Execution is where it's at."

The third-round of the state tournament will take place Friday at 3 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium, when the girls take on Henry Wise.