Sports
Ridgewood Lax Girls County Champs Yet Again
Lady Maroons overcome slow start to defeat IHA 21-8
There is only one school’s name on the Bergen County Womens Coaches Association Lacrosse Trophy and it’s Ridgewood.
On Sunday, the Lady Maroons made sure that stayed the same, as it used a tremendous second half to take home the title, winning 21-8 over IHA.
It wasn’t pretty to start and IHA even had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 early on, but in the end, Ridgewood was able to get back to its gameplan and everything fell into place.
Find out what's happening in Ridgewood-Glen Rockwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Ridgewood used a potent attack to not only regain the lead in the second half, but quickly blew the game wide open.
What was a 6-6 game early on in the second half became a blowout as Ridgewood began to find ways to attack the IHA defense.
Find out what's happening in Ridgewood-Glen Rockwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Second half we came together and played as a team, got one on ones, draw and dumps, we played more as a team,” said senior Jess Miller. “It really feels amazing, we wanted to defend our title.”
Miller scored 4 goals on the day, but it was Kelci Smesko’s 7 that led the way for the Lady Maroons. Lindsay Weiner, Souerette Morley, Sammy Giordano and Kaitlin Concilio all scored two a piece for Ridgewood.
“It definitely means a lot and it means a lot to us, we’re like one big family so this game means a lot,” said senior Sammy Giordano. “Now we just have to take it game by game, one step at a time, because nothing is guaranteed.”
Ridgewood had some new faces in the lineup as it was without the services of the dynamic Sally Jentis, who is out with mono with no clear timetable set for her return.
The Maroons showed its depth by replacing Jentis seamlessly, which is no easy task considering that Jentis is considered one of the top recruits of the 2011 class nationally.
“I think it’s a really good lesson for our girls,” said Ridgewood head coach Carla Mixon. “We knew that IHA was going to come hard, they have some really great girls.”
“It’s meaningful to every single girl, it's always different girls,” added Mixon.
For Ridgewood, its hold on Bergen County superiority continues for yet another year, but for this team it’s just the first step in the long journey ahead.
The second part of the season begins on Tuesday when the team begins the defense of not only its Group 4 title, but its Tournament of Champions crown as well.
The girls will take on East Brunswick in the first round of the tournament at home on Tuesday.
