Tuesday,
November 11, 2013
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
|
|
Northern Highlands completed the triple crown of league, county and state sectional titles with a 1-0 win over West Milford on Monday afternoon. |
ALLENDALE – In a successful four-year varsity field hockey career, there was only one missing entry on the resume of Northern Highlands’ senior Lauren O’Keefe. She has been a part of four Bergen County championship teams and those are memories that she will never forget, but each of her previous three seasons ended with a bitter loss in the state tournament. With one last chance against upstart West Milford in Monday’s North 1, Group 3 section final, O’Keefe saw an opportunity and took matters into her own hands to make sure her scholastic career ended with no regrets.
On a rebound off of a shot by Kendall Magliato, O’Keefe pounced on the loose ball and knocked it home with 1:29 left in regulation to lift top-seeded Northern Highlands to its first section title since 1993 and completed the program’s first-ever triple crown season of league, county, and state titles with a 1-0 triumph over No. 6 seed West Milford in Allendale.
“To win it this year is beyond description and I’m happy for the kids that they worked hard enough to get it,” said Northern Highlands’ head coach Rich Smith. “I’ve been here for 18 years and we’ve never won a league or a section championship, so this is extremely gratifying.”
|
Julia Norman set up one of West Milford's best scoring chances. |
West Milford came in riding a wave of confidence and with a familiar rallying cry. After being shut out twice by Wayne Hills in the regular season, it turned around and beat the Patriots last week in the sectional semifinals. They were hoping for a similar ending after being shutout by Northern Highlands in the teams' two regular-season meetings.
With a title to gain and nothing to lose, West Milford (13-9) came out firing off the opening whistle and set the tone throughout the first half with several scoring opportunities. The best of those came late in the half when Julia Norman sent a ball towards the net and Callie Schultz tried to slam it home. Northern Highlands’ goalie Alexa Markel was in position to make the save and the game remained scoreless well into the second half.
Northern Highlands came out with a more aggressive approach in the second half and started to take control of the midfield behind the play of highly-skilled seniors Nora Verhoff and Maryclare Mastriano. Behind those two and the speedy Jordan Paton on the wing, they earned one corner after another but were unable to get shots on the frame off of those corners. With time winding down and overtime looming, Paton took a chance in switching up the corner calls and it worked to perfection.
Instead of feeding O’Keefe or Mastriano neat the top of the circle, she delivered a short pass to Kendall Magliato, who blasted a hard shot on net that was saved by Breanna Csakvary. O’Keefe crashed the net and was able to get to the rebound before Csakvary could clear it, using a reverse-stick pass to herself to touch it around Csakvary before knocking the ball into the open cage with 89 seconds to play in regulation.
|
Lauren O'Keefe scored the lone goal of Highlands' historic win the section final. |
“We scored on a corner (in the section semifinals against Wayne Valley) and we knew had to score on a corner today,” said Magliato. “They weren’t coming towards my direction so they weren’t expecting it. I just felt that Lauren was going to tap it in. I saw the whole thing. It feels amazing.”
Markel made six saves to record her fifth consecutive shutout for Northern Highlands (21-1), which also got good games defensively from Jessica Gant and Clare Dalton.
With a Northeast Division 2 title, Bergen County title, and now a North 1, Group 3 state sectional crown now competing for room in the trophy case, the Highlanders move onto the Group 3 semifinals against North 2 Group 3 state champ and perennial state power Warren Hills. No matter what happens in that game, this team has accomplished its goal and will go down as the most decorated field hockey team ever to play at Northern Highlands.
“It’s surreal,” said O’Keefe, one of the team captains. “We’re excited and we want to keep advancing. Everything I’ve worked for came down to that last moment and it felt so good to tie it all together and finish strong.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY. PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |