Newark Academy Girls Lax Falls to Millburn

Nicki Schiller, Janie Penney and Emily Butcher put on a scoring clinic Tuesday at Dr. Keith A. Neigel Field in Millburn, leading the Millers girls lacrosse team to a 21-12 win over Newark Academy.

The game was a close contest for nearly 13 minutes, but then Millburn turned on the offensive firepower and never looked back. With the score tied at five with 12:38 left in the opening half, the Millers closed out the period with an 11-2 run, effectively ending the contest with 25 minutes still left to play.

"I think it was a pretty good win. Going into it, I thought it would be anyone's game," said Millburn head coach Cory Conner. "In the first ten minutes, I wasn't too impressed. We were trying to run with the ball too much."

Millburn got seven first half goals from Schiller and three from Penney, who added four more in the second half. Emily Butcher nailed five of her six tallies in the opening period as well. 

Newark Academy could not defend Millburn's top three scorers and its keeper could not get saves on free positions. Millburn was a perfect 4-of-4 in free position opportunities.

Millburn opened with a goal from Penney 12 seconds into the game, when she ran right through the defense and fired it home. Schiller followed up with a wrap-around goal and then scored Millburn's third goal, slicing right through Newark Academy's defense like water. 

"They're really aggressive, both of them," Conner said of Penney and Schiller. "They have a hunger for the ball and they play well off of each other."

Newark Academy's Laura Kleiber scored two of the next three goals, getting the first on a free-position and the next on a point blank shot right in front. Nikki Blank scored on a one-timer to trim Millburn's lead to one point. Erica Jacobs completed Newark Academy's 4-1 run to tie the game at four with 16:25 left in the opening half.

After goals by Kleiber, who had seven in the game —and Butcher tied the score at five — Millburn girls took over.  Penney, Butcher and Schiller scored 10 of Millburn's last 11 to close the half and  15 of the next 16 overall. Newark Academy didn't get its seventh goal until the 1:19 mark of the first period.  

Newark Academy, which fell to 5-5, have matches against losing teams in five of the next six games. Today, they are home against St. Elizabeth Academy.