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Sports

With County Tournaments Underway, GRHS Sports at Crossroads

Softball moves on, boys and girls lax fall

With the county tournaments underway for both boys and girls lacrosse and softball, the teams at Glen Rock have been quite busy.

Boys Lacrosse (9-3)

Since we last checked in, the Boys Lax team suffered a narrow defeat to Bergen Catholic, 10-9 and then responded with a 6-5 win over Wayne Hills in a Rizk Division game.

Heading into the county tournament, the team beat Pascack Hills in the first round by a score of 11-3, setting up a quarterfinal match-up with Ramapo.

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The Panthers got out to a strong start, but could not build on a solid second half and they fell 9-2 to the Green Raiders to be eliminated from the tournament.

Tim Miller got things started for Glen Rock, as he found the back of the net for an early goal. 

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Ramapo tied it up heading into the second quarter, when the Panthers looked to gain the advantage.  Solid defense and good transitional play led to some great opportunities for Glen Rock in the second quarter and the pipes were Ramapo goalie Mike Turpan’s best friend as the Panthers clanged two off the iron in the period.

Late in the second half, Ramapo grabbed the go-ahead goal in what started out as a tight defensive struggle. 

In the second half though, Ramapo pulled away.  They scored 4 goals in the period — many off the transition — to pull away and take the game out or reach due to their stifling defense in their own end as well. 

“The second half we didn’t do as good of a job at stopping the transition and we were playing a lot more unsettled defense,” said head coach Tim Bracken.  “We just turned the ball over too many times and gave them too many opportunities in transition.”

Despite being eliminated from the Bergen County tournament, the team has plenty of big games left on its schedule.

They will face Sparta, presenting them with a chance to win the Rizk Division outright. A win there would lift them to the Group I State Tournament, where they could make some noise as well.  

“Right now we’re 7-0 in the division and were looking to win that outright and we have our destiny in our own hands,” said Bracken. “Meanwhile we're looking to move up in the rankings for the Group I Tournament.”

The Panthers scored another big win by defeated Pequannock 8-5 on Tuesday.  Chris Kapotes had 11 saves and Tim Miller had 3 goals to lead the way.

Girls Lacrosse (5-4)

To start their county run, the team demolished Waldwick 15-4 in the first round of the tournament. Maggie Egan led the way, as she finished with 4 goals. Kelsey Yenco and Fiona McDonald netted 3 each and Alivia Thoubboron had a goal and 3 assists in the win.  

Next, the Lady Panthers took on Mahwah in the quarterfinal round of the Bergen County Tournament looking to make some noise and follow up on last years strong performance.

A tough start found the team down at the half, but a strong second half almost resulted in a comeback, before they fell to Mahwah 13-11.  Kelsey Yenco netted six goals, but Mahwah had five girls score two of more goals to get the win.

The Lady Panthers are just starting to hit their stride following odd scheduling early in the season.

On Tuesday, the team faced Ridgewood, who is currently ranked in the top 10 in the nation by a Laxpower.com poll. Despite a tough effort, the team fell 21-6. Kelsey Yenco had 5 goals, and goalie Erica Pollet had 17 saves.

Baseball (10-3-1)

The baseball season poses a big challenge in Bergen County, as teams are forced to choose between throwing their best pitcher in the state tournament or Bergen County Tournament, which coincide with each other.

Realistically for Glen Rock, winning the Bergen County tourney, which features #7 nationally ranked Don Bosco would be tough, so they will rely on their bats for the counties and save Matt Lawsky for a state game.

How good has Lawsky been this year? No free passes here, as Matt has only walked two batters the entire season and he consistently mows down the opposing batters.

Last week the team had a light week, beating Hawthorne 9-4 on Wednesday.  They’re going to need the rest, however. The team plays five straight next week — that’s right five.

They got off to a good start with their challenge, defeating Pompton Lakes 12-1 on Tuesday.  Paul Goldman and Tyler Patasnik each had 3 RBI on the day.  Matt Lawsky improves to 6-0 on the season.

The Panthers hope to pummel Manchester on Wednesday, Pascack Hills on Thursday, Elmwood Park on Friday and Ridgefield on Saturday.

Whew...

If the team can escape the week with — ideally — a 5-0 or 4-1 record, that should help them in their seeding for the state tournament immensely as they finally begin to make up many of the games that were rained out earlier in the year.

Softball (10-3)

The team had a great week last week, going 2-1 in regular season play, defeating Lodi and Hawthorne, but losing a tough game 6-3 to River Dell.

The girls then took to the field on Saturday for a Bergen County game and made a huge statement, defeating Hasbrouck Heights by a score of 12-2.  The team once again proved that, stellar pitching by Taylor Feuss aside, they were a force to be reckoned with behind the bat.

On Tuesday, the team suffered only their third defeat of the year, falling to Pompton Lakes 4-2.

Up next for the 9-seeded Lady Panthers is a round-of-16 matchup with 8-seed Ridgewood.  The two neighboring towns will tangle with the winner presumably getting a chance to take on No. 1 Paramus in the quarterfinal round.

Tennis (8-2)

The Tennis team has already had some impressive wins this season and things are about to get even better. 

The team will be lifted by the addition of Dean Sponholz, a transfer student who is eligible to play on May 4. He will take over the first singles spot, while current first singles player Alvaro Aldaz (6-2) moves down to the two spot which should make their lineup that much more dangerous.

On Tuesday, the team continued their solid play with a 4-1 win over Pompton Lakes. 

Golf (11-6)

The golf team had a stellar week, defeating five teams and losing only to Pascack Hills.  They stomped Garfield, Eastern Christian, Queen of Peace, North Arlington and Hasbrouck Heights in an impressive week.

Diamo Streaser led the way in all of their matches, with his best score of the week coming as a 2-over 38.

On Tuesday, the team fell to Pascack Valley, 173-185.

We'll be back next week with coverage from the Softball county game, as well as the latest on all of the teams as the state tournaments get closer. 

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