Tuesday,
May 25, 2010
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Jess
Miller scored with 1:22 left to play to tie the game and
Ridgewood won just over a minute later to knock off Bridgewater-Raritan,
16-15, in the Group 4 North state sectional final. |
RIDGEWOOD – Over
the past four years, no player in North Jersey has better personified
a pass-first mentality than Ridgewood’s Samantha Cermack.
She has an uncanny knack for drawing double-teams and finding
an open teammate in a position where she could score. Cermack
does not do it out of necessity for her team to be successful,
but because she has a passion for setting up her teammates and
watching them thrive.
But down by four goals
with under 10 minutes to play in regulation against undefeated
Bridgewater-Raritan in the Group 4 North state section final on
Monday, Cermack had to ponder that this might be her last game
in a Ridgewood uniform.
The Maroons came back
to tie the game and with one last possession and time winding
down, Cermack knew she had to take a more assertive approach when
going to net. Although the Bridgewater-Raritan only gave her the
slightest of openings to make a play, it turned to be all she
needed.
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| Rutgers-bound
Lauren Sbrilli finished the season with over 100 goals for
Bridgewater-Raritan. |
Cermack
wiggled her way between two defenders to create a sliver of space.
While diving to the ground, she flipped a shot into the upper
left-hand corner with 27 seconds to play as top-seeded Ridgewood
capped a furious rally to win the Group 4 North title and hand
second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan its first loss of the season
with a thrilling 16-15 triumph at Maple Park Field in Ridgewood.
“I just wanted
to do anything to help us win and keep our season going,”
said Cermack, who will play next year at Johns Hopkins University.
“We knew we had our work cut out for us, but we never lost
hope even when we were down and we kept playing hard until we
could get that one goal that got us going again.”
Ridgewood quickly grabbed
a 3-1 lead in the opening minutes. But just as quickly as it took
the lead, it gave right back thanks in large part to Bridgewater-Raritan’s
Carlee Dragon and Lauren Sbrilli, the highest scoring duo in New
Jersey history. Each scored twice as the Panthers regained the
lead. But Ridgewood regained some momentum going into halftime
as Kelci Smesko scored in the final minute to tie it at 8.
Any momentum the Maroons
had was vanquished in quick fashion as Bridgewater-Raritan ripped
off four straight goals to start the second half. Sbrilli sandwiched
a pair of goals around one by Kelly Fenton as the Panthers took
a 12-8 lead with 15:53 to play.
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| Sam
Cermack split two defenders and scored the game-winner for
Ridgewood with 27 seconds left to play. |
Ridgewood
needed a spark and badly when previously injured Abbey VanHorne
returned to action and Sally Jentis returned to take the draws,
an area in which the Maroons were uncharacteristically getting
beaten.
“I couldn’t
stand on the sideline anymore, I had to get back in and give us
a boost mentally, if not anything else,” said VanHorne.
“They were so fast that when they won draw control, they
were coming right down the field and usually scoring. We just
had to get some sort of spark and start believing again that we
would win this game.”
It stayed that way
until just below the 10-minute mark when Ridgewood finally took
advantage of a three-minute penalty on the Panthers. With just
seconds remaining in the penalty, Jess Miller scored off a feed
from Cermack to get Ridgewood back on track. Sam Giordano and
Cermack scored consecutive goals to trim the Panthers’ lead
down to a goal, 14-13, with 4:59 to play.
But Dragon once again
answered the bell and scored to make it a two-goal lead with 3:22
to play. Time was running out on Ridgewood’s season and
on Cermack’s career, neither of which the determined senior
was about to let happen on her home field.
“I have to say
there was a lot of praying that we would find a way to come back,”
said Ridgewood head coach Karla Mixon. “But that said I
was never nervous because I knew our team would keep our composure.
We had to stick to our gameplan of winning draws, spreading them
out, and attacking them. We didn’t have much time left,
but we still had enough time to be able to run our offense effectively
without hurrying or rushing into a style we were not comfortable
with.”
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| Haley
Alvarez played well in net for Bridgewater-Raritan. |
The
Maroons got the ball right back and Cermack fed Giordano in traffic
for a goal that got Ridgewood back within one, 15-14. Just one
a minute later she did it again, finding an open Miller in the
slot for the tying goal with 1:22 to play.
Sbrilli was able to
scoop up the draw for the Panthers, but the Ridgewood defense
forced a turnover that gave Cermack a final shot to make something
happen. Although she was looking to run a play to get an open
shot for a teammate, she also knew she might have to take the
shot herself. The senior carried the ball to her right and, as
the double-team came, she knifed her way between the two defenders
and got off a shot that went over the stick-side shoulder of Bridgewater-Raritan
goalie Haley Alvarez and into the net with 27 seconds remaining
to give Ridgewood its only lead of the second half, 16-15.
“I normally am
looking to make a play for someone else there, but I guess the
adrenaline just took over,” said Cermack. “I was just
hoping to get a good shot off and get it on net so someone could
get the rebound, but it went in.”
The Panthers had one
more bullet left in the chamber though as they won the draw and
came right down the field, earning a free position close to the
Ridgewood net with 12 seconds to play. Bridgewater-Raritan’s
Fenton raced in, but two Maroon defenders closed in on her just
in time. Her shot from point-blank range was tipped by both VanHorne
and Taylor Pedersen. Jess Miller scooped up the loose ball before
it went out of bounds and ran out the clock on maybe the biggest
win in a history full of them for Ridgewood.
“Samantha
(Cermack) told me right before the play that (Fenton) was left-handed,
so I knew I had a chance to get a stick on it,” said VanHorne.
“The defense had to do something and take the pressure of
our goalie. Once I saw Jess Miller get the ball, I knew the game
was over and we did it. We wanted to show how strong we mentally
and this game showed that.”
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| Kelci
Smesko's goal just before halftime tied the game at 8.
|
Cermack
was dynamite throughout making all the big plays at the crucial
moments for Ridgewood (19-1), finishing with four goals and six
assists. The Maroons spread the wealth offensively as they usually
do with Smesko, Giordano, and Miller scoring three goals apiece.
Jentis netted two goals and Paige Pearson had one.
Dragon finished her
career at the state’s all-time leading scorer for Bridgewater-Raritan
(21-1). The senior attack, who will play at C.W. Post next year,
had six goals and four assists. Fenton and Rutgers-bound Sbrilli
each cracked the 100-goal barrier for the season, with five and
four goals, respectively.
With the landmark win,
Ridgewood advanced to the Group 4 state final. There they will
face Group 4 South champion Cherokee, a 13-9 winner yesterday
over Washington Township. That game will be played at Robbinsville
High School at 5:00 p.m.
The
only other time the Maroons were at Robbinsville High School was
last year when they lost to eventual Tournament of Champions winner
Moorestown in the state final. But with Moorestown having had
its national-record 228-game in-state winning streak snapped yesterday
by Shawnee, the T of C crown is up for grabs. But the Maroons
are not thinking nearly that far ahead. Their only goal is to
walk off the Robbinsville High School field with a much better
feeling than they had a year ago.
“When we looked
over and saw how (Bridgewater-Raritan) felt, we know how that
feels and it’s not a good feeling,” said Cermack.
“You feel bad in a way because they are such a great team
and this game could have gone either way. But we know we don’t
want to feel that way and our goal coming into the season is to
be state champs. Now we’re one step closer and we want this
game so bad because we just want the chance to play another day.”
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