Monday, October 12, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

With its 6-0 win over Westwood, No. Highlands, the top seed and defending champion, are heading for the Bergen County Tournament semifinals next weekend.

OLD TAPPAN – Northern Highlands field hockey coach Rich Smith knows the history of the Bergen County Tournament. Whichever team has been the top seed or the defending champion coming into the tournament has not done particularly well in recent years. In fact, there have been two upsets in the past five years where the top seed has been ousted in the quarterfinals by the No. 8 seed.

So history was not exactly on the Highlanders’ side when they entered Sunday’s quarterfinal against Westwood as both the top seed and the defending champion. But there would be no upset this time as the Highlanders came out flying from the opening whistle.

Ashley Flynne scored three minutes into the game and teammate Kelsey Corriston added another just over a minute later. Northern Highlands scored five times in the first half en route to a 6-0 victory over Westwood at Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School.

“Being the top seed and the defending champs, we know teams are going to come in ready to beat us,” said Northern Highlands’ Kristin Heaney, who is the team’s leading scorer. “I think the experience we have from winning the counties last year helped us a lot. We know what it takes to win and we focus on one game at a time.”

Westwood had two corners in the second half that served as it best two scoring chances.

On the Highlanders’ first shot, they found the back of the cage. Flynne was in front and deflected a shot by Tina Weiss past Westwood keeper Elizabeth Figurido to make it 1-0 just three minutes in.

Just 78 seconds later, Northern Highlands cashed in again off of a short corner. Vanessa Milenasi delivered the pass and Kelsey Corriston scored from the top of the circle for a quick 2-0 lead.

“We want to play our game and score early,” said Flynne. “It is always good to score a couple of goals and get the lead quickly. Then we can relax and just keep playing our game. Even though we won it last year and teams are going to come after us more, we’re just as hungry to win the counties again.”

Alicia Kelly came off the bench and knocked in a rebound at the far post to make it 3-0. A long, hard shot from Heaney found the back of the cage for a four-goal lead. Heaney has scored in all but two games this season, both shutout losses, for the Highlanders. With 2:30 to play in the half, they capped the outburst. Corriston, who scored the winning goal in the Bergen County final last year, drilled one home unassisted to help put the game away by halftime with a 5-0 lead.

Behind the hustle of senior Amanda Sproviero and Kelly Weber, Westwood (0-11-1) had a few chances to get on the scoreboard when they had four corners in a two-minute span in the second half. They got two shots off, only to be turned aside both times by Northern Highlands keeper Lee Carluccio.

Highlands will play N/V Old Tappan in the semifinals.

Those were the only saves Carluccio needed to make earn the shutout for Northern Highlands (9-3). Veronica Kretzer and Flynne each had a goal and an assist. Caroline Marotta controlled the middle of the field for the Highlanders and also chipped in with an assist.

Northern Highlands advanced to the Bergen County semifinals next Sunday, where they will face fourth-seeded Northern Valley/Old Tappan, a 2-1 winner over fifth-seeded River Dell. A plus for the Highlanders going into the game is that they will be playing on their home field.

But Smith feels his team is going to play one way and one way only, regardless of what field they play on.

“We try to play fast at all times, it just feels more comfortable for us on our field,” said Smith. “This team has a lot of experienced players who have been in close games, tough games before. It is not going to get any easier from here. But we’re playing well right now and we want to build on that for next week.”

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