The boys lacrosse team suffered a 6-3 loss to Ridgewood Saturday in the first round of the Tournament of Champions in Bridgewater.
The Group 2 champion Cougars jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first quarter, but Ridgewood responded with three in the second quarter and never trailed again.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th FINAL Chatham (16-7) 2 0 1 0 3 Ridgewood (14-6) 1 3 0 2 6IN SHORT
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The two evenly matched teams battled in a low-scoring, methodical game that had the teams separated by only a goal with two minutes left in regulation before Ridgewood tacked on the final tally.
Thomas Guida opened the socring with an unassisted goal two minutes into the game. He was followed by David Gill who scored at 6:06 with an assist from Sam Carson giving Chatham a two-goal lead. Ridgewood got on the board a minute later with a goal by Matt Cardew.
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Ridgewood responded in the second quarter with three unassisted goals from Peter Reuter, Blake Feagles and Jack Allard to take a 4-2 lead into the half. Chatham's Kyle Howard-Johnson scored the only goal of the third frame with an assist from Christophe Strunc to cut the deficit to one.
In the fourth quarter, the teams played solid defense holding each other scoreless for more than 10 minutes. Ridgewood put the game out of reach with a goal from Connor O'Shea assisted by Reuter at 1:44 and Max Luing from Allard with just 30 seconds to go.
COACH'S TAKE
"Three or four shots went off the posts and that would be a one-goal game. We had great accomplishments this season. We did a lot of good things this year and took the next step. But you always want to win the last game. It is a tough way to lose."—Chatham head coach Anthony Calandra
