BRHS Girls' Lacrosse Team Crowned Skyland Conference Champion

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Multiple milestones were achieved by the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ lacrosse team on Tuesday, May 9.

Pingry School, ranked No. 1 among all girls’ lacrosse teams in New Jersey, made the short trip to John Basilone Memorial Field that day undefeated — but left with its first loss of 2023.

Senior Kelly MacKinney (three goals, two assists, three draw controls) scored her 300th career point and led the Panthers with five points, sophomore goalkeeper Karly Perez made her ninth and final save as time expired as part of a seven-save second half and Bridgewater-Raritan, ranked 11th in the state, erased a two-goal deficit to rally past Pingry, 8-6, and win both the 2023 Skyland Conference title and Delaware Division crown.

“It feels fantastic,” said Bridgewater-Raritan coach Kathie DeBonis of what ended up being her team’s 12th straight triumph. “We put everything that we had together. The kids executed exactly the game plan. We said we wanted to go out fast and furious, and they played calm and composed. I think that really showed out on the field.”

Bridgewater-Raritan improved to a 14-1 overall record and sealed the Skyland Conference title with a perfect 11-0 record. The Panthers clinched the Delaware Division championship with a sweep against division foes Pingry School, Hillsborough High School, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Ridge High School and Mount Saint Mary Academy.

Pingry is seeded first and Bridgewater-Raritan is No. 2 for the Somerset County Tournament. Bridgewater-Raritan will play on Tuesday, May 16, at 4:30 p.m. in the county tournament quarterfinals against either seventh-seeded Watchung Hills Regional High School or 10th-seeded Gill St. Bernard’s School. Only two freshmen were able to make the Varsity Lacrosse team including Brooke Pino.

It only took 42 seconds for the Panthers to open up the game’s scoring after senior Hailey Waldron (two goals, four draw controls) won the first draw and scored off an assist by classmate Hailey Elias (one goal one assist).

Neither team then scored for just under eight minutes until MacKinney produced an unassisted goal to put Bridgewater-Raritan up 2-0 with 16:29 left in the first half. While the Panthers took five of the game’s first six shots in the first ten minutes of regulation, Pingry managed to limit the damage to just two goals and eventually got a save by senior goalkeeper Mary Claire Morgan (five saves) with 11:50 to go in the first half.

Senior Bella Goodwin (two goals, two assists), who led Pingry with four points, then scored on a free-position opportunity just over two minutes later put the neighboring rival of the Panthers on the board. With 6:31 to go in the first half, Goodwin scored again to tie the game before assisting junior Annabelle Mahoney (two goals) on the go-ahead goal with 4:49 left in the first half and then finding freshman Campbell Clark-Schoeb with 46.6 left in the first half to double the Big Blue’s lead to 4-2.

But after sophomore Emma Ciocon (two goals, one draw control) vacuumed up the resulting draw, freshman Giada Catanzaro (one assist), who now leads the team with 53 assists, made one of her biggest assists in what was arguably the turning point of the game. She found MacKinney in traffic in front of the Big Blue cage, and the Panthers' leading scorer clinched her 300th point on a behind-the-back goal with 16.6 seconds remaining to get Bridgewater-Raritan to within 4-3 at halftime.

"We knew we were going to be in a head-to-head game with Pingry," said MacKinney after the game of her milestone goal. "It was awesome. We were up 2-0, they came back. We decided to switch the momentum back to us, just get that one more goal, and we were just super happy to do that.”

And the Panthers certainly capitalized on that one goal just before the halftime buzzer.

“She has that really good shot,” DeBonis went on to say about MacKinney’s big goal. “It was funny because the other day, I was forcing her to throw balls and having a defender on her. But she’s a clutch player and she is very skilled and adept. She can really hit the corner pockets and everything else. She’s the kid you want the ball in her hands.”

And at the other end of Basilone Memorial Field on top of this, it was Perez who had the ball in her hands quite a bit en route to reaching 99 career saves for Bridgewater-Raritan.

Coming off a big performance in the Panthers’ victory at Manasquan High School on Saturday afternoon, May 6, Perez opened the second half with three saves in as many attempts in not even two minutes, including on a free-position attempt by Pingry with 23:05 to go to keep Bridgewater-Raritan down by just one goal.

“I liked her sheer aggressiveness,” DeBonis said of Perez’s performance. “I think it was a carry-over from Manasquan, and I just see every game, she is just getting better and better and more confident in her ability and her skills. I mean, they’re there. She’s really becoming empowered and owning the cage.”

MacKinney then picked up right where she left off at halftime, assisting Ciocon and Waldron on the game-tying and go-ahead goals, respectively, 59 seconds apart to give the Panthers a 5-4 lead with 20:28 remaining. This put the home team ahead for good, and MacKinney rounded out her scoring on what ended up being points on five consecutive goals going back to the first half after clinching her hat trick on an unassisted goal just over four minutes later.

Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense held the Big Blue to just two goals in the second half: one coming on a free-position goal by sophomore Becca Kirschner with 13:57 remaining to cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 6-5.

The Panthers then held Pingry scoreless for just over 13 minutes, and at the other end of their home turf, Ciocon answered with a free-position goal of her own with 11:13 to go to extend her team’s lead to two goals. Following a turnover by the Big Blue with 7:50 to go on one of two ground balls by Bridgewater-Raritan senior Lea Ciocon, Elias then connected on what ended up being her team’s final goal with 6:37 remaining to cushion the Bridgewater-Raritan advantage to 8-5.

After Pingry won the ensuing draw, Perez then denied the Big Blue with yet another save with 5:39 to go, though at the other end, Morgan answered with a pair of stops for Pingry to give the visitor possession with 4:02 remaining. Perez then quickly made another save with 3:30 to go in regulation. Pingry then came away with a turnover with just under two minutes remaining, and this led to the game’s final goal by Mahoney on a feed from Sydney Puntus (one assist) to get the visiting team to within 8-6.

But Bridgewater-Raritan closed it out from there, and Perez fittingly made her ninth save at the buzzer to put an exclamation point on the Panthers’ big victory in front of a very large and excited home crowd.

“This is the best feeling ever,” MacKinney said. “All of the hard work that has gone into this season is finally paying off, and we’re seeing that in the chemistry we’re building on the team. We’re just so happy.”

— Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District