Top Lax Recruits
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By Anthony Caruso III
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 4/23/16
MOORESTOWN, N.J. – After suffering consecutive losses, Ridgewood faced yet another major challenge today in a rainy contest at fellow New Jersey power Moorestown.
Lillie Kloak had four goals and Alex Absey added three as the Maroons used a big second-half rally and claimed their second straight win over the Quakers, 12-8.
A year ago the Maroons (6-2, No. 17 in STEPS Lacrosse North America Rankings) stopped Moorestown’s 88-game win streak last year in an overtime win. Moorestown (8-2, No. 18) went on to win the State Group 3 title and Ridgewood claimed the Group 4 crown.
“Last year is in the past,” Ridgewood head coach Karla Mixon said. “We were thinking about this year, but we knew that they may have had some motivation coming into the game. We’ve had so many tough hurdles this season – they played their game and we had to adjust.”
Ridgewood fell to Long Island power Wantagh, 12-8, last Saturday and then Wednesday it fell to NJ power Summit, 9-8.
“We definitely changed plans and our game plan – and it really paid off for us,” said Mixon. “I think the intensity was there – and we could have come out here flat after our loss to Summit – but the team that we had at the end of our game with Summit was the team that I wanted to come out today.”
Moorestown led, 6-5, at halftime and then seized an 8-6 advantage on consecutive goals by Genie Santarpio (four goals).
But once it began to downpour, the Maroons took over as Kloak keyed a 6-0 spurt with three of her goals and Ridgewood held the Quakers scoreless for in the final 19:58 of the game.
Moorestown coach Deanna Knobloch declined comment.
“The draws were crucial as you saw,” Kloak said. “That allowed us to score the final goals in the game. We knew by continue to score on them, it would be harder and harder for them to come back on us.”
Katie Bourque added two goals and Chelsea Trattner had a goal and two assists.
“It could have been anyone on my team,” Kloak said. “It just happened to be me. Our team played so good. We had some spots were our offense wasn’t connecting that well, but that wasn’t the case today.”
The Maroons tied the game at 3 with a goal by Absey, before a goal by Hannah Cermack made it 4-3. Quinn Nicolai scored to tie the game at 4 before adding another to give the home team a 5-4 lead. Robin Panzarella made it 6-4 for Moorestown, before Bourque scored to cut the lead at 6-5 before halftime.
“We could have thrown all these variables into it – we could have come out flat after a loss, it was raining, etc.,” Mixon said. “They literally bled on the field for this win. I know that Moorestown is a fantastic program – and I love (Moorestown coach) Deanna (Knoblauch) – and we worked hard to get this rescheduled because of SAT’s and all kinds of crazy things with the schedule. I’m so proud of our girls.”
Ridgewood 12, Mooresrown 8
Ridgewood
Alex Absey 3g
Katie Bourque 2g
Hannah Cermack 1g, 1a
Lillie Kloak 4g
Nicole Macolino 1g, 1a
Chelsea Trattner 1g, 2a
Casey Cole 6 saves
Moorestown
Olivia Alvarez 1a
Quinn Nicolai 2g, 4a
Annika Nissen 1g, 1a
Robin Panzarella 1a
Genie Santarpio 4g
Jessica Goralski 5 saves
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