Monday,
October 5, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Sarah Jordan scored twice and added three assists as Mahwah opened it Bergen County Tournament in style with a 8-0 win over North Arlington. |
MAHWAH – For the past several years, Mahwah has been the talented, often under-seeded team that no opponent wanted to see on its side of the draw. But with a successful start to the season, the Lady Thunderbirds earned the No. 5 seed for this year’s Bergen County Tournament and would not have the luxury of sneaking up on anyone. No longer is Mahwah the plucky underdog; but is instead a team with high expectations and the aim of making a deep county tournament run. If Sunday was any indication, the T-Birds are on their way to doing just that.
Sarah Jordan has quietly become one of the biggest offensive threats in the county and the junior midfielder had herself a whale of a game. She had two goals and three assists as Mahwah had seven different goal scorers and dominated from the opening whistle in an 8-0 win over No. 28 seed North Arlington in the first round of the Bergen County Tournament in Mahwah.
“It’s important to finish early because it gives us a lot of confidence that we can keep doing that throughout the game,” said Jordan. “We like to play the ball on the ground and use the whole field. When we do that, we know that we’re going to get some good chances to score.”
Mahwah attacked the flanks throughout the game and found success early. Jordan carried the ball along the end line and slid a pass across the goal mouth with Hannah Busch finishing at the back post to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead just 3:29 into the game.
Near the midway point of the first half, Jordan ripped a shot from 20 yards out that went off the fingertips of North Arlington keeper Jessica Gilmour and in to make it 2-0. Brenda Jaffe then found the back of the net and Jordan followed with her second goal as Mahwah took a comfortable 4-0 lead into halftime.
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North Arlington keeper Jessica Gilmour finished with a career-high 19 saves. |
“As soon as the whistle blows we’re really hungry to score goals,” said Mahwah’s senior sweeper Jen Moutenot, who will play at Division 1 Loyola (MD) next year. “We have some new girls and a lot of girls coming back like Sarah Jordan and Nikki Roberts making those great crosses into the box.”
Erica Civerchia, Lauren Himpele, Allison Jordan, and Nikki Roberts (who also had two assists), all netted second-half goals for Mahwah (5-2-1). Gilmour was under duress all game long and finished with a career-high 19 saves for North Arlington (5-2).
Mahwah moves into next Sunday’s Round of 16 where it will face No. 12 seed Ridgewood, a 3-0 winner over Tenafly and the T-Birds will go in the role of the favorite against the Group 4 opponent.
“We’re very confident this year because we have great chemistry. “We feel like we can win states and go far in counties. It’s important to not miss the opportunities we have. Against teams like Ridgewood, we have to make the opportunities count. We’ll work on it in practice with coach (Courtney) Carrelha all week. What we’ve been doing so far has prepared us for counties and hopefully states as well.”
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