Ridgewood Sports Rebound

This past week featured a lot of strong performances for the various sport teams – the football team broke its slide, the girls cross country team captured its group title, and the Ridgewood boys soccer team continued its strong play with a victory over Paramus.

Here's a quick recap of what's gone down.

Football

It's been a long season for the Ridgewood football team, but the Maroons are hoping last week's contest with Hackensack will spur a nice winning streak to end 2011.

Ridgewood put an end to a four-game losing streak with a 45-6 victory over the Comets at home. The Maroons raised its record to 2-4 and will look to win back-to-back games on Saturday in Teaneck.

After the Comets cut the Maroons lead 7-6 in the early going, Ridgewood scored often and pulled away by halftime with a 24-6 lead.

Leading the way for the Maroons was Blake Feagles and Peter Reuter who ran for two touchdowns each. After Jason Canella scored from three yards out in the first, it was all Ridgewood. Kicker Young Hoe Koo hit a 29-yard field goal in the second quarter and made all six point-after kicks.

Girls Cross Country

A Ridgewood runner did not take the Group A individual title at the Bergen County Group Championships, but the Lady Maroons literally ran away with the Group A title outscoring Northern Highlands, 31-60.

The Ridgewood pack was the difference. The Lady Maroons' top four runners finished from third to sixth in the race, led by sophomore Laura Weisberger with a time of 19:23.46. Seniors Caroline Davidson, Hanako Shigenobu and Victoria Pan came in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Junior Lesley Jones and sophomore Emily Fishbein came in 13th and 14th respectively.

Boys Cross Country

Ridgewood could not keep up with Don Bosco despite senior Levin Jennings taking third overall in the Group A Bergen County Group Championships at Darlington in Mahwah on Saturday. Jennings finished with a time of 15:50.82, only behind a pair of Don Bosco runners – winner Christian Costello and second place finisher Ryan Tucker.

The next three Maroon runners came in 10th, 11th, and 14th in Nick Salamone, senior Travis Spicer and junior Will Ades, respectively. Junior Storm Dublirer finished in 19th.

Both cross country teams will be vying in the Lou Molino Memorial Cross Country Meet of Champions on Saturday at Darlington in Mahwah.

Girls Gymnastics

Ridgewood just fell short of the winning the Bergen County Championships at their own gym as the Lady Maroons were fractions short of upending the winner Ramapo, 108.825 to 108.175.

Despite the second place showing, Ridgewood freshmen Yurina Harada who was third all around with a score of 37.05. Harada won the vault with a score of 9.5 while coming in third in the beam and second in the floor exercise. Nicole Granert came in third in the floor exercise. Granert also finished fifth in the beam.

Boys Soccer

A Chris Zaprianov goal early in the second half gave Ridgewood a big 2-1 win over their top rival on Thursday night in Paramus. The victory raised the Maroons record to 11-2-1 on the season.

Zaprianov put the shot past Paramus goalie Nick Cundari in the first 10 minutes of the second half to give the Maroons a 2-1 lead. The defense, a Mike Henni goal and Ridgewood keeper Nick Tselios did the rest for the Big North victory.

The two teams will face each other in a make-up game in Ridgewood on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Girls Soccer

The Lady Maroons raised its mark to .500 with a 2-1 victory over Demarest at home on Monday.

Ridgewood (7-7-3) received a goal each from Darby Kiernan and Kelly McBrearty in the Big North contest. Maroons keeper Olivia Shaw made 10 saves to preserve the win.

It was a rebound win for Ridgewood, which lost a tough 3-0 defeat at the hands of Paramus on Saturday at home. Shaw made nine saves in the defeat. The Lady Maroons were only down 1-0 at halftime until the Lady Spartans broke it open in the second half.

Girls Tennis

Ridgewood raised its record to 14-3 on the season with a 4-1 victory over Demarest on Friday in the Big North contest.

The Lady Maroons clinched the victory behind the first doubles team of Stephanie Choi and Erica Kontos, who won 6-3, 6-2 over Demarest's Sydney Hammer and Liza Kollender. The second doubles team of Anna Teresa O'Keefe and Tara Olson were dominant at 6-0, 6-0 while Ridgewood's Caroline Errico also won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. Rosie Given of Ridgewood won the toughest match, claiming a three-set victory over Demarest's Lauren Kim, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.


Ridgewood varsity games this week
(Note dates and times could change. Games are at 4 p.m. unless noted)


Wednesday

Boys soccer
Paramus at Ridgewood, 6 p.m.

Thursday

Girls soccer
Ridgewood at Bergen Tech

Girls tennis
Ridgewood at Teaneck

Gymnastics
League Championships at Ridgewood, 5 p.m.

Saturday

Girls soccer
Lakeland at Ridgewood, Noon

Football
Ridgewood at Teaneck, 7 p.m.

Monday

Boys soccer
Ridgewood at Demarest, 4:15 p.m.