Friday,
May 8, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Jordan Ford handed out 8 assists for Ridgewood, which beat Mahwah, 17-6, in the semifinals of the Bergen County Tournament on Thursday. |
DEMAREST – Ever since the inception of the Bergen County Tournament, the Ridgewood girls lacrosse program has been as dominant as could possibly be. The Maroons have never lost. Ridgewood has generally used the county tournament as a tune-up for a run at a state title, but as the sport has grown exponentially over the past few years the talent level has risen throughout the county. Ridgewood has been the carrot that all of the other teams have been chasing for years. The question has become, which Bergen County team will be the first to pull the upset?
Thursday was Mahwah's turn to take a crack at the Maroons, but as the Thunderbirds have grown into a contender, Ridgewood has shown no signs of falling back to the pack. Led by a virtuoso performance bysenior Jordan Ford, the Maroons made a statement that this tournament was still theirs to lose.
Ford notched a season-high eight assists, five of those to Hannah Cermack, as top-seeded Ridgewood advanced to the Bergen County final with a 17-6 triumph over fourth-seeded Mahwah at the Academy of Holy Angels in Demarest.
Ridgewood wasted no time in showing its balance offensively. Six different players scored in the first 5-plus minutes and the Maroons raced out to a 9-1 lead.
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Mahwah's Taylor Herrmann scored twice before halftime to the Thunderbirds to within 10-4. |
“It's really important to gain possession early and take advantage of it,” said Ford. “No matter how good of a team you are or how good your opponent is, if you don't have the ball you can't put points on the board.”
The Thunderbirds played tight early but rallied to gain some momentum going into the second half. Taylor Herrmann scored twice late to trim the lead to 10-4 at the break. They kept it going in the second half with Cailie Batelli scoring off a nifty pass from Kelly Pushie to make it a five-goal deficit, 10-5.
Like any great team does though, Ridgewood buckled down by getting back to the basics: Winning draws, running their offense through and shooting on target. After scoring just one goal over a 14-minute stretch spanning the first and second halves, the Maroons needed less than two minutes to score three straight to put the game away. Ford sparked the spurt with a goal then capped her magnificent effort with a pair of assists to Cermack in the final minutes as Ridgewood is now one step away from its 11th straight Bergen County title.
“I think when we spread out, used that space, and didn't rush our shots that things started going our way,” said Cermack. “We're really strong all the way from our defense to the midfield to the attack. So we're confident that no matter who has the ball or who's moving off the ball, that we're going to do what we're supposed to do and get the job done.”
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Hannah Cermack and Ridgewood will play Northern Highlands in a county final between two undefeated teams. |
Ford finished with 12 points (four goals, eight assists) to led the way for Ridgewood (15-0). Cermack led all players with five goals. Herrmann had two goals with Pushie adding a goal and an assist for Mahwah (12-3).
Saturday's Bergen County final will be the most highly anticipated county final in the tournament's 11-year history. It will be the first-ever contested between two undefeated teams. The Maroons' opponent will be third-seeded Northern Highlands (19-0), which rallied from an eight-goal deficit to score a 13-11 victory over No. 2 seed IHA in the other semifinal. While the Maroons know that this county title game will be different than those of years past, their approach will be status quo.
Just keep doing what they have been doing all season, just a little bit better.
“We drill into each other's heads is that we can't get cocky no matter how well we're playing,” added Ford, who will continue playing lacrosse next year at James Madison University. “No matter how big the game is or who we're playing, we have to work on playing better every game. It's all about picking up our intensity right from the start and building on it throughout the game to set the tone.”
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