Sports
Ridgewood Takes TOC Quarterfinal with Win Over Chatham
Great defensive battle leads to 6-3 victory.
The Ridgewood boys lacrosse team continues its late-season resurgance, defeating Chatham 6-3 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semis against top seed Bridgewater-Raritan next Wednesday.
Chatham jumped out to a two goal lead in the first quarter, but would allow Ridgewood to slip back in and take a lead they would never relinquish with three goals in the second.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th FINAL Chatham (16-7) 2 0 1 0 3 Ridgewood (14-6) 1 3 0 2 6IN SHORT
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The two evenly matched teams battled in a low scoring, methodical game that had the teams separated by only a goal with two minutes left in the game. Thomas Guida opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal two minutes into the game. He was followed by David Gill who scored at 6:06 with an assist from Sam Carson giving Chatham a two goal lead. Ridgewood would get on the board a minute later with solo goal by Blake Feagles.Â
The second period, Ridgewood opened up their scoring with three unassisted goals from Peter Reuter, Blake Feagles and Jack Allard to take a 4-2 lead into the half. Chatham's Kyle Howard-Johnson would score the only goal of the third frame with an assist from Christophe Strunc to bring the game to a one goal difference.
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In the fourth period, the teams played terrific defense holding each other scoreless for over 10 minutes. Ridgewood put the game out of reach with a goal from Connor O'Shea assisted by Peter Reuter at 1:44 and Max Luing from Jack Allard with just 30 seconds to go.
MAROON OF THE GAME
The Defense - The Ridgewood defense shut down Chatham's explosive attack.Â
"As much as they had to play today, with the face off advantage they had. As a whole, it goes to the defense." - Ridgewood coach Mike Pounds
COACH'S TAKE
"A terrific game by two good teams. Getting themselves in a hole and being able to claw their way back by scoring four straight was huge. We were able to establish some rhythm on offense, not quite our rhythm. We were able to get by with the success that we had. Their defense did a great job all day long. We made some adjustments to clean things up after they got a couple easy ones early. The kids did a great job the rest of the day." - Ridgewood coach Mike Pounds
UP NEXT - Ridgewood faces the No. 1 seed, Bridgewater-Rartian, at Kean University on Wednesday at 7:30 for the Tournament of Champions semi-final.
