Freshman Guides Lacrosse to Landmark Win

It might have been Senior Night at Memorial Field on Tuesday, but the biggest star for the Cranford lacrosse team wasn't exactly one of the team's elder statesmen.

Freshman Tom Fitzgerald scored the game winner 1:02 into the overtime session to send Cranford to a dramatic 10-9 victory over neighboring rival Johnson.

"It was a great feeling," said Fitzgerald, who is the only freshman on the team's varsity roster. "It's almost indescribable. A lot of the older guys were really, really passionate about getting this win, and they got me pumped because I could see how badly they wanted it."

The win marked the first victory over the Crusaders in the program's six-year history. Cranford had come as close as an 11-10 overtime loss to Johnson last season but was able to reverse the result this year.

"It's big for our program because a lot of our kids couldn't get over the mental hump of beating them," said Cranford coach Al Reinoso, whose squad had been 1-5 against the fellow Union County school. "Physically, we've been there. We've been close, but it feels great to come on the other side of that."

Fitzgerald's goal came on a man-up situation for Cranford (5-2). Will Bender took the opening face-off as Cranford crept into Johnson territory. Stephen DiGiovanni's shot hit the post, and the ball eventually sailed out of bounds on another scoring attempt. When play resumed, Fitzgerald fed, senior midfielder Mike Sheehan who gave it back to Fitzgerald. The freshman found an opening around a defender and connected from about 10 yards out for his second goal of the game.

"The goalie was giving me the far side of the net and I saw the open corner and went for it," Fitzgerald said. "There was really nothing they could do."

Prior to Fitzgerald's tally, Johnson had forged a furious rally with four goals over a span of about four minutes to send the game into extra time.

The Crusaders (3-6) won five of seven face-off battles to help maintain possession and fuel their comeback. Cranford defenseman Bender finally put an end to Johnson's offensive burst by coming up with a face-off win with 1:07 left to help stymie the opposition's momentum.

"They were beating us pretty badly on the face-offs," said Reinoso, whose team was outshot, 36-30, and lost the face-off battle, 12-11. "When the chips were down we asked Will to try something different and he was able to win two in a row."

Bender also kept Johnson's top offensive threat, Nick Villaverde, in check for much of the game. Villaverde, who has 15 goals and 16 assists to pace Johnson this season, was held to just one goal in the contest.

"It becomes a problem when they take away your catalyst on offense," Johnson coach Louis Van Bergen said.  "Cranford is a good team. They have a lot of good experience and they're getting better and better as a program."

DiGiovanni had the hot hand early for Cranford, using a blistering shot off of isolation plays to post a team-leading three goals and an assist. He had the Cougars' first two goals in the game that saw five ties and six lead changes.

After Johnson took its only lead of the game midway through the third period, Cranford connected on five straight goals for what seemed to be a comfortable 9-5 advantage with 4:22 left in the game. During that run, Fitzgerald had another key goal off an interception near the close of the third quarter to put Cranford ahead 6-5.

Goalie Bobby Anstatt used speedy reflexes to hold off the Johnson attack. The junior netminder had 11 saves, including four pivotal stops over a span of two minutes in the middle of the fourth quarter. His effort along with the performance of longsticks Bender, Alex Bartley and Kyle Floyd contributed to the defensive effort.

"We came into this game a little too cocky, and they came back like last year, but this time we weren't going to let that happen again," Bender said.

Sophomore Jonathan Rubin contributed two goals and junior Eric Knight, and seniors Pat Kaskiw and Vince Fitzgerald posted a goal apiece for the Cougars. Cranford is currently riding a two-game winning streak and will host New Providence Thursday at 4 p.m. before traveling to Livingston Saturday at 11 a.m.

"We have to focus on slowing it down and come off of the emotional roller coaster that we're riding right now," Reinoso said. "We can't look past any of the next opponents."