At any level in sports, for a team to go a full season unbeaten is quite an accomplishment. So far, Montgomery Blair’s girls soccer team is doing just that, sporting an impressive 14-0-1 record and along the way capturing the county championship and winning their Regional Final to advance to the Maryland State Class 4A championship tournament. Blair, the top seed, will host Severn Run in a quarterfinal matchup at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.
This is the fourth straight trip to the State playoffs under coach Bobby Gibb who is in his 37th season at the school. “This team loves playing together and they are just having fun,” Gibb said. “‘I have been around a long time and this is what it’s all about.”
Gibb, in fact, has been at the helm for so many years he’s now coaching a former players’ kid. Jackie Martins, who played for Gibb in the early 1990s, now has her daughter Madelaina Martins on the team. Older daughter Alegria Martins, played for Gibb, as well, and is now a freshman goalkeeper at Salisbury University.
With 17 seniors lost from a season ago and only two returning starters, there were certainly questions heading into this year but they were quickly answered with early season wins when Blair scored six goals in back-to-back games. Blair scored six goals again in their 6-0 regional final win over Eleanor Roosevelt on Oct. 28 to catapult the Blazers back in to the State tournament.
Blair is led by senior captain Meron Koro, who is headed to play at Towson University next year. “She is the glue, the inspiration to our team,” Gibb said. “She just makes everybody around her better.” Koro scored a dramatic double overtime game winning goal in the County title game against Sherwood.
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Blair is back in familiar playoff territory, but team leaders said they would love to achieve something the program has never done and that’s win a state championship. The Blazers were so close when they were runners-up in 2023 and the difference this year just might be the team’s depth.
“We can score from everywhere,” Coach Gibb said. “‘You can’t just shut down one player.”
