Ridge Tops Montgomery in Thriller, Advances to State Finals

Add Terrance Scott to the list.

On a team filled with talent and stars that have been beautifully displayed all season, the six-foot senior was added to the docket of players who have stepped up in a prime-time spot and played the position of hero for the Ridge Red Devils (16-4) in their 11-10 victory over the Montgomery Cougars (13-8) in the sectional Semi-Finals, Saturday afternoon.

Holding onto a slim 8-7 lead after three quarters, it was in the final stanza when Scott took over for the Red Devils.

He scored all three Ridge goals in the quarter, giving the Red Devils an insuarance goal each time – distancing Ridge from Montgomery on all three goals.

"We've been doing that all year, from different guys," Ridge head coach Ken Marsh said, "This is just a group of really unselfish guys, and we'll take what we can get."

Montgomery answered all of Scott's goals in the fourth, but, the Cougars seemed to have too little to late, drawing within a goal at 11-10 with only eleven seconds remaining. Alex Otero, as he had done all game and virtually all season, won the game-clinching face-off to send Ridge into the Public, Group III state final.

"Man, he was drained at the end of the game there," Marsh said of Otero, "We couldn't even use him on offesne, but he's that type of player. He doesn't care about his points, he's a team player and he knows that his major job is to win face-offs."

Ridge jumped out to an early 2-0 lead a mere three minutes into the game on goals from Eric Scott and Sean Miller. Montgomery went on to add three unanswered goals in the first quarter before Eric Von der Linde scored off a beautiful feed from Alex Byrnes at the 1:53 mark of the quarter. The Cougars added another goal with under a minute left to cap off the nine-goal first quarter.

Alex Byrnes added a goal of his own in the defensive-owned second quarter that witnessed Montgomery take a 6-5 lead into halftime.

After the Cougars opened the second half with a goal, giving Montgomery the 7-5 lead, Ridge took command of play. Jason Mertz, Otero, and Byrnes all added goals, giving Ridge the 8-7 lead heading into the fourth.

On the defensive side of the ball, Richard Reid was phenomonal in cutting down the quick Cougar attackmen and did a very nice job of clearing the ball out of danger on several of occasions.

Alex Rosen, Mike Singer and Conor Skea were effective as well on defense.

Jonathon Wilkins was solid all game as he's been all season, not allowing Montgomery to stake any sort of momentum late in the game.

With the win the top-seeded Red Devils will play in the state championship game Wednesday against the winner of West Windsor North and Morristown at Ridge High School.

"The boys are excited to be home," Marsh added, "You know, this is something they had been working for their entire careers, since they were freshmen, so it's going to be really special."