Sports
Chatham Boys Rally to Take Second Straight Group 2 LAX Championship
Guida leads way with four goals, Connors dominates on second half face-offs in 10-8 victory.
The Chatham boys overcame a 7-2 halftime deficit and rallied for 8 second-half goals to defeat the Somerville Pioneers 10-8 Wednesday for the NJSIAA Group 2 lacrosse championship.
With the win, Chatham captured its second straight group lacrosse title, having also defeated Somerville in 2012 by an 8-6 margin.
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1st
2nd
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3rd
4th
Final
Chatham (19-4)
2
0
3
5
10
Somerville ( 18-3)
3
4
1
0
8
The game started out well for the Cougars as Thomas Guida scored just over two minutes into the game.
The Somerville offense came back with a vengeance, and a combination of good play on Somerville's part and uncharacteristic turnovers, missed passes and an inability to control loose balls put the Cougars in a 7-2 hole by the time the half ended.
"I think we underestimated them a bit in the first half" forward Guida said, trying to explain the team's poor first half performance.
Whether it was a hangover from Sunday's emotional win over archrival Summit or Somerville's play the Cougars had dug themselves a deep hole to climb out of in the second half.
The Cougars started their comeback midway through the third period with Guida notching his second goal of the game. The Pioneers would match that goal but two goals in the final two minutes of the quarter by Guida and Dan Marotta would pull the Cougars to within three, and the comeback was starting to gain momentum.
Tripp Connors won the opening draw of the fourth quarter; he was 10 of 11 in the second half. Only 39 seconds later Guida put home his third goal of the game, and Chatham trailed by only two.
"Winning all those face-offs was key" said head coach Anthony Calandra. "The face-off wins got us rolling."
Chet Mclaughlin cut the deficit to one with 9:00 remaining, and 37 seconds later Sam Carson fired a shot past Somerville goalie Garrett Morello to tie the game at 8-all.
Less than two minutes later, Christof Strunc found the back of the net to put the Cougars ahead for the first time since early in the first quarter.
David Gill capped off the scoring for the Cougars and the offense played keep-away for the final few minutes to complete the comeback.
UP NEXT
The NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, which is set to being on
Saturday, June 1.
