EWING -- It took all of one minute and 30 seconds for the Ramapo Girls Soccer team to gain their first corner kick in the New Jersey Group 3 finals against Toms River South at the College of New Jersey on Saturday.

Corner kicks and re-starts in the attacking third have been the hallmark of Ramapo scoring in their past six state and County games this year as Carolyn Warhaftig has served balls that have found the net in over 50-percent of those opportunities.

On this initial final game corner kick, Toms River South keeper Kristin Kuhmann came out to the six yard line and easily garnered the ball. This initial stop of Ramapo's potent corner kicks led to five other corners and five direct kick re-sets that were unable to find the back of the net as Ramapo lost the Group 3 finals, 1-0, in a hard fought contest.

Just four minutes into the game, Toms River had its first corner kick, and while Ramapo was clearing the ball upfield and sprinting for offside trap positioning, TRS sweeper Andria Araujo attacked the clearing ball and chipped it deftly to outside midfielder Nikki Nycz just inside the 18 yard line. Nycz was able to narrowly hold the offside line and settle the ball as the Ramapo defenders were all sprinting upfield. Araujo sprinted in on goal and calmly pushed a ball on the ground just inside the right post past Ramapo goalie Kiersten Osterkorn.

For Ramapo, it was only the sixth goal given up for the entire season and was as many as the team allowed in 16 NBIL games. After the goal, the balance of play was in the mid- third, as both teams struggled to settle balls on the very bouncy artificial turf.

Ramapo controlled the better of play, however without any serious chances on goal, as Osterkorn had only two more non-threatening touches at goalie for the balance of the half.

The second half saw Ramapo have a number of corner and direct kicks. Warhaftig, arguably the best sweeper in the entire state, placed the kicks into the box every time, but TRS's Kuhmann was up to the challenge just as often. Ramapo continued to press forward as they managed to control TRS clearances with Ashley Shaban, Annie Maresca and Katie Kleinert, playing with a broken toe, stepping up continuously in the midfield.

Osterkorn's first touch in the second half was with 18:35 in the game. With under 10 minutes remaining in the game, Ramapo fullback Andrea Rovegno violently collided with teammate Warhaftig. Rovegno came out of the game temporarily and after being checked by the officials, Warhaftig was able to continue despite a large bruise on her forehead.

Ramapo Coach Paul Heenehan moved Warhaftig to center midfield in the last seven minutes where she had several aggressive runs onto the Tom River defense. One led to a corner, which was headed by Katie Kleinert onto goal but parried by Kuhmann to the side of the net where no Ramapo player was around to potentially finish the play.

In the final two minutes, there was a flurry of activity around the TRS goal, with the best Ramapo chance being a threaded through pass by Wahraftig to Shaban, who had gotten behind the TRS keeper, who had come out. Shaban's ground shot on goal was cleared away from the goal line by Junior defender Tricia Yufer to secure the win.

Yufer did an outstanding job on Lizzie Reed throughout the contest, limiting the All-State junior to some strong runs on the wings, but no shots on goal. Though very disappointed in not securing Ramapo's 11th state championship, the team finished with a record of 24-2, won the NBIL title, an eighth straight state sectional championship, and the Bergen County championship with a win over Immaculate Heart Academy. The team was also ranked in the top 10 nationally in the NSCAA/Adidas poll.

For the seniors -- Katie Klienert, Carolyn Warhaftig, Kelly Baron, Ashley Shaban, Kiersten Osterkorn, Lauren Volpe and Allison Daniello -- it has been a tremendous ride. For the seniors that played four years of varsity soccer , their record is an impressive 89 wins, 6 losses and 4 ties. Coupled with a 52-0 season for the two seasons prior to these girls entering high school, Coach Paul Heenehan has a six year record of 141-6-4, and an unmatched career record of 474-43-23.

At Ramapo, it's rebuild and reload every year at one of the most proud and remarkable high school sports programs in the State of New Jersey.