Chatham Girls' Lacrosse Blows By Somerville Into Sectional Semifinals

The Chatham girls' lacrosse team, in typical fashion, used momentum from a dominant first half to take its North Jersey Group II second round state tournament game against Somerville, 14-2, at Haas Field on Monday.

Chatham scored the game's first goal at the 23:23 mark when senior captain Meghan Murray sliced through Somerville defenders for the early lead.   The team followed Murray's lead as Kathryn Maiorano, Brittany Marriott and Kelsey Perselay scored in order, and by the 19:29 mark, the Cougars had a 4-0 lead.

After Liz Hyde scored off an assist from Jaclyn Leto, Murray buried her second goal, forcing a Somerville timeout at the 14:51 mark.

"The offense is really starting to click," said Head Coach Deb Marriott.    

The timeout would prove to be fruitless, however. Murray scored after the timeout, and Maiorano added her second goal off a nice assist from Cat McCutcheon to make the score 8-0. Leto was soon rewarded for her unselfish play, scoring a goal at the 9:50 mark.

Emma Ehler, Kallen Murray and Natalia Maurillo each scored toward the end of the first half, and the Cougars went into the break up 12-0.

"Although we didn't run many plays, we freelanced it and it worked pretty well," said Ehler. "We got scores from a bunch of different people." 

The Cougars dominated all relevant statistical categories in the first, winning 14 ground balls, taking 20 shots and winning 8 of 12 draws.                

In the second half, Chatham controlled the ball and took command of the game's tempo to seal the victory. Marriott pulled starting goaltender Hannah Reader for the entire second half—she finished with five saves on five shots.

Those in attendance began to see what the team's future might look like as sophomore Megan Helmig scored to make it 13-0 Cougars. After most of the Chatham starters were pulled, Somerville broke the shutout with a goal from McKenzie Loughlin to make it 13-1.

Chatham's Kit Whiteman and Somerville's Rachel Coco each scored before the game was over to account for the final score.

The Cougars will play Mahwah in the Group II sectional semifinals on Thursday.

"We're taking it one game at a time—we're focused on the next challenge," said Marriott. "We're hoping to keep that momentum going."