Wednesday,
October 7, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Eva Hurm scored twice for Northern Highlands, the state's No. 1 ranked team, which went on the road and handed No. 2 Montclair a 4-0 loss. |
MONTCLAIR - With a legendary run of state championships throughout the past few years, Northern Highlands has been cemented as one of the true dynasties in the history New Jersey high school girls soccer. While this year’s team has followed suit with an undefeated start to the season, Tuesday was the day that Highlanders might finally have met their public school match.
Highlands went on the road in front of a big crowd to face the state’s No. 2 ranked team, defending Group 4 state champion Montclair. The Highlanders had a 1-0 lead when it appeared Montclair was about to score the tying goal. Then a play happened that showed why the Highlanders are who they are and everyone else is, well…not.
Kayla Klatt made a diving save and with the ball rolling along the goal line, fullback Sarah Kelly cleared it out. After connecting a pair of long passes, Eva Hurm finished the play on the other end of the field for the second goal. The Notre Dame-bound Hurm tacked on another one late as Northern Highlands left no doubt as to who is truly the state’s best team with a 4-0 triumph at Woodman Field in Montclair.
“We came into this game knowing how strong Montclair is and we had to come with a lot of tire and pick up our game,” said Kelly. “Every touch was important against a team like them. We knew that whoever scored first would set the tone. Getting a goal late in the half gave us a lot of momentum going into the second half.”
The crowd was buzzing before the game even started and the two top-ranked teams did not disappoint with a first half full of end-to-end action. Northern Highlands had two legitimate scoring chances in the first 58 seconds but neither found the back of the net. Morgan Busacca’s header off of a corner kick from Casey Richards went just wide.
Montclair came right back and nearly scored three minutes later only to be denied at the goal line by Kelly off of a corner kick.
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Kelly Crawford and Montclair fell to 9-1 for the season. |
The Mounties’ Kelly Crawford made a similar save on the goal line 15 minutes later off of a corner kick before the Highlanders finally broke through on. what else, a set piece.
On a corner kick from Richards toward the back post, fellow senior Madison Kahn rose above a defender and headed it past Montclair keeper Gabby Isola with 18:40 left in the half for a 1-0 lead.
“We had some scoring opportunities early and we didn’t want to have a repeat of what happened at Hunterdon Central (where Ariel Somple scored with 18 seconds left in double overtime for a 2-1 win), said Northern Highlands head coach Tara Madigan. “I thought we were more disciplined and to get that second goal early allowed our defense to relax a little bit.”
The score was still 1-0 at the break, however, and Montclair made a push forward on a long run by Rebecca VanSiclen. She struck a low volley that Klatt got her body in front of with a dive to the right. The ball rolled along the goal line where it was cleared out wide by Kelly. It seemed like an innocent pass to clear the zone initially but the Mounties realized seconds later it was just the start of a game-changing counterattack.
“As just the ball was rolling I just reacted to it,” added Kelly. “I was not going to let that ball go in and I got it out of there.”
In familiar fashion Busacca collected the pass and played it up to Amanda Pook, who turned at the midfield line and delivered a perfect through ball into space onto the foot of a streaking Hurm. She outran the Montclair defense, touched the ball around the keeper and knocked it into the open net for a 2-0 lead with 25:40 to play.
“We practice making diagonal runs and running onto through balls all the time,” said Hurm. “I saw the ball come through and I just thought I could get there. That wouldn’t have happened without everyone working together and being on the same page.”
The third goal that all but sealed up the win came off of a sheer hustle play from Claire Jamieson. She battled hard to win a 50-50 ball in the air, settled it and laid it off to freshman Claudia DiPasupil, who knocked it home to make it 3-0. Hurm capped the scoring by scoring at the left post off of a feed from Richards.
Julia Pash and Julia Homan controlled the defensive third from the middle with Busacca with Kelly doing the job on the outside for Northern Highlands (10-0) in front of Klatt, who made six saves. Isola finished with a season-high 10 saves for Montclair (9-1).
The win is a yet another signature one for Northern Highlands. For a team that did not need a boost of confidence, winning emphatically against a team the caliber of Montclair on its home field has put the rest of the participants in the Bergen County Tournament and the Group 3 state tournament on blast. There is one team, and one team only, to beat to win a title.
“This win is huge,” said Hurm. “We this game was going to be a hard one. To come in here and play as well as we did gives us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season.”
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