Friday,
May 2, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Freshman Emma DiMartini is a part of a rebuilt defense that helped Old Tappan pull off a 7-5 win at River Dell on Thursday and also grab a share of its first ever league title. |
ORADELL – With graduation losses and then the further loss through attrition of three members of the Class of 2014 who decided to sit out their senior seasons, there was not much left in terms of experience on defense for this year's Northern Valley/Old Tappan girls lacrosse.
Here is what head coach Kosta Panayotof had to work with.
“My goalie [Laura Aanonsen] had never been a varsity goalie, Nikole Rizzo is a senior but she never played lacrosse before, McKenzie Stenick has never played lacrosse before and Emma DiMartini is a freshman,” said Panayotof, before accentuating the positive. “We do have Sarah Ryan. She is a sophomore and she played last year.”
It was a dicey proposition when the season began, but all of this year's Golden Knights can share in an experience that none that have come before them ever have. With a 7-5 win on the road at River Dell on Thursday afternoon, Old Tappan clinched at least a piece of its first ever league championship. Should the Knights go on to beat Waldwick next week then the title would be theirs alone.
Even the most optimistic probably never saw this coming as the Knights improved to 11-4 heading into Saturday's game against Saddle River Day where they are hoping to win their first ever Bergen County Tournament game.
How did they get here?
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River Dell goalie Kayla Rowley made 7 saves and helped keep her team in the game all the way through. |
“I honestly unbelievable, especially with the three seniors that quit. I tell them how well we are doing and they are so surprised and so excited for us. I am just happy that I have been able to participate and help this team become what it is,” said Aanonsen. “It is kind of crazy how I got here. I filled in for last year's goalie for one game and then another girl quit and it was up to me to step up. I knew it was coming this year, but I wasn't really sure that I was ready for it.”
It is a team in the true sense of the word as the offense has done its part in allowing the defense to grow into surrounding. Winning draws and possessing the ball have been key parts of Old Tappan's success and it was how it built a lead and then maintained it. Haley Symons takes the draws and her height helps her be first to the free ball that comes from them. And then, when in possession, Symons is tough to move of her chosen route to the goal, which is usually straight down the pipe.
With the game tied at 1, Symons scored three straight first half goals to put Old Tappan in front for good. She bookended two bull-rushes up the middle with a goal on swoop in from behind the net as she put her team in front 4-1.
“I was so important to get a lead in this game. If we would have been behind we would have had to start to rush on offense to try to catch up and that is not really our game. We wanted the lead and we wanted to make them have to try to catch us,” said Symons, who scored a game-high four goals, three of them in a stretch of just 3:24 inside the final seven minutes of the first half. “We were knew we were playing for a league championship or at least a share of it. We are a young team with only three seniors and one of them is a new player. We were just hoping to finish above .500, but we knew if we kept working we would have a chance to be better than that and it has worked out that way.”
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Hayley Mulliken (left) scored two of Old Tappan's 7 goals.
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Old Tappan made it hard for River Dell to come back because it made it hard for River Dell to get the ball. Kristen Wozniak scored with 2:44 left in the first half to get the Golden Hawks back to within 4-2 at the break, but Old Tappan answered with the first two goals of the second half to double the lead with just under 16 minutes to play. Maia Levenshus set up a wide open Hayley Mulliken with a lob pass off a restart and Symons scored unassisted to make it 6-2 with 15:50 to play in the game.
Just when it looked like Old Tappan would have an easy run-in, River Dell started to gain possession of the ball with more consistency and it paid off in goals. Aimee Manzelli scored from in close to get the Hawks to within 6-3 and Yasmine Khaddage cleaned up a ground ball inside the cone and deposited it in the back of the net to make it a two-goal game with 7:35 to play.
Old Tappan's Dana Li snuck one through to temporarily stem the River Dell run, but the Hawks won the next draw and turned it into a Wozniak goal off an assists from Gabrielle Toohey to make it a 7-5 game with 4:21 to play and River Dell had chances to get even closer down the stretch. Wozniak scooped up a ground ball off the ensuing draw, but that possession ended in a turnover as did the Hawks next-to-last as DiMartini came up with a steal. Aanonsen made a late stop on a point blank shot with 30 seconds to go and the Knights could take a deep breath after that as they improved to 6-0 in league play.
“This team has a great attitude toward the game and we are all really confident playing together. We are so enthusiastic and we really wanted to win this game and we had to step up at the end to make that happen,” said DiMartini, the freshman defender who suffered a broken arm two years ago that made her question whether or not lacrosse was something she wanted to pursue in high school. “It was bad. It was dislocated and I had to go to physical therapy for a year. I did not know if I wanted to go back into sports at all, but I decided to give it another try and I am so glad that I did. It is so much fun and it is great being a freshman on this team because we are winning and the girls are so nice and supportive.”
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Gabrielle Davidson had 3 goals for River Dell, which fell to 10-3 on the season. |
Symons led the way offensively with her four goals for Old Tappan, while Mulliken (2 goals) and Levenshus were Old Tappan's other goal scorers. Senior Jamie Foley added an assist.
Gabrielle Davidson netted a hat trick to lead River Dell, which is in the midst of its best ever season as well. The Golden Hawks are now 10-3 on the season and will host a first round Bergen County Tournament game for the first time in their history when they welcome Ramapo in Saturday.
There are plenty of positives to point out for Jess Rickershauser, the only head coach that River Dell has ever had. She started the program as a JV only side back in 2008 and has taken it to its current state, which is as a league title contender and county tournament host.
“This was a disappointing loss, but we just talked about it in our team meeting after the game that tomorrow is another day. We have a great record, we have already qualified for the state tournament, we are hosting our first county tournament game and we have a lot of good things coming up. We just discussed how we have to move forward, how we have to close our eyes and wipe this game away,” said Rickershauser. “This program has grown up. We returned everyone but two players from last year and next year we will return everyone but three, so a lot of these girls will be together for a full three years. We expect good things now and it is okay to be upset about this loss, but we also know we have a lot to look forward to.”
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