LIVINGSTON - Alana Dederick and Tierney Conlon have been playing lacrosse since they were in the third grade. Now, as juniors on Caldwell's girls lacrosse team, they are leading the Lady Chiefs' offense.
The pair combined for 10 goals —five each —to lift Caldwell to a commanding 20-9 victory over Newark Academy on Tuesday.
Dederick and Conlon make the perfect duo. Dederick likes to shoot and score while Conlon's expertise is in assists. With yesterday's victory, when she posted 4 assists, Conlon notched her 100th career assist.
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"It's really exciting to me," said Conlon about the assists.
Caldwell head coach Angela Giampino said that the "patience" of her team on the offensive end was key to the victory.
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"I think we moved the ball around well and we were more patient," said Giampino, whose team improved to 3-7 after facing a tough schedule early in the season.
Newark Academy head coach Meghan Tavormina knew that Caldwell was better than her team.
"We knew that they were on another level," said Tavormina, whose team dropped to 4-3 on the season.
Tavormina added that her team needs to work on stopping the opponent from getting through the defense and cutting down on rebounds.
"They were cutting through and getting into the critical area. They really manipulated the rebounds," said Tavormina in reference to scorers Dederick and Conlon. But she was happy that her team played well in the first half.
"We want to take the positives out of this and that we were able to stay with them for 10 to 15 minutes," said Tavormina.
In addition to Dederick and Conlon grabbing goals, seven other Caldwell players scored against the Newark Academy. Amanda Fiore, Annie Mergner and Tara Tyrrell had a pair of goals each while Molly Sellars, Amanda Jedele, Dominque Fortunato and Emily Banaszynski notched a goal each.
For Newark Academy Erica Jacobs and Laura Kleiber had three goals each while Rebecca Ellis, Nikki Blank and Jessica Waggoner each netted a goal.
Newark Academy actually tied the game in the first half as Jacobs slapped a shot by Caldwell goalie Danielle Eftaxas to tie the game at four 10 minutes into the first half.
But a minute later, the Chiefs regained the lead as the team's assist leader, Conlon, scored off a pass from Katie Naspo. Conlon shot it by Newark Academy goalie Leigh Wolfson, who was peppered with shots for most of the day, for a 5-4 Caldwell lead.
Then the flow of the game went significantly to the Chiefs' advantage, with Caldwell taking command of the match. The Chiefs scored four of the six unanswered goals in the last three minutes. In the final minutes, Conlon scored a pair of goals while Fortunato and Tyrrell added a goal each.
Any thoughts of a Newark Academy comeback were quickly smashed by the Chiefs offense at the start of the second half when Conlon and Dederick each scored in the first three minutes to give Caldwell an insurmountable 16-6 lead.
Tavormina believes that Wednesday's battle with Cranford will have her team evenly placed against a program on the same level. Newark Academy also hosts Union Catholic on Friday.
Newark Academy Girls Lacrosse
(Games at 4 p.m.)
April 21 Cranford
April 23 Union Catholic
April 27 at Millburn
April 30 at Morris Hills
May 5 Livingston
May 13 Dwight Englewood
