BALTIMORE (Map, News) - John Carroll coach Krystin Porcella doesn’t even need to close her eyes to recall one of her team’s top goals of the season.

“The Mount Hebron game, we have a play where Casey [Ancarrow] goes to the crease with Ally [Carey] and we kind of give them the green light,” she said. “Casey drew the defense and Ally snuck around the other side and without practice, just intuition, Casey knew to hit her for the goal before the double team got to her.”

That uncanny connection between the pair of senior midfielders is one of the biggest reasons why the second-ranked and defending IAAM A Conference Tournament champion Patriots dominated the entire season.

“I love playing with Ally,” Ancarrow said. “It’s always awesome to have someone there who you know will catch your throw when you pass it to her, and someone to look to when you need help. I am going to miss her next year at college.”

Her teammate feels the same bond.

“I could throw the ball in the air and she would be there to catch it. I don’t need to look for her anymore, she’s just there and it’s going to be rough without her next year.”

Ancarrow, who will play for James Madison next spring, has 41 goals, 27 assists, 29 ground balls and has won 44 draws. Carey, who played for the U.S.  Under-19 National Team this past summer and will play for Vanderbilt next year, has eerily similar numbers to her teammate with 42 goals, 29 assists, 33 ground balls and 53 draws won.

But it’s the things the pair do that doesn’t show up in the stat sheet that makes the biggest difference for the Patriots.

Ancarrow helps to slow down the other team’s best attackers and maintain the pace of the game, with Carey in charge of guiding the team’s offense, one that has scored at least 10 goals in every game this season. And that’s to say nothing of Maryland bound-midfielder Grace Gaeng or the team’s other nine seniors.

“It’s so hard to keep the focus,” Carey said. “I love being the underdog, you have nothing to loose and you can come out and surprise teams, and now that’s what teams want to do to us. We have to make sure you bring your best, and you have to bring your best every game.”

And the team was at its best in every big game this year.

Against then-top-ranked Mount Hebron earlier this month, the Patriots dealt the Vikings their first loss from a Maryland team in 10 years, 18-9. Against ranked teams McDongoh, Severn, Bryn Mawr and Spalding, John Carroll won by an average of more than seven goals and allowed no more than nine in any of those games.

But the Patriots realize all those wins won’t be as sweet if they can’t become the first team to claim consecutive IAAM A Conference Tournaments.

“We plan everything around winning that championship,” Ancarrow said. “We had our schedules ahead of time and told everyone, ‘don’t do anything on [championship] day.’ There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that we can get back there and be champions again.”

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com