Helwig's 6 Goals Pace Madison Girls Lax in Quarters

A sprained ankle hasn't prevented Alli Helwig from scoring goals for the Madison girls lacrosse team over the last two weeks. Wednesday afternoon, neither did Kinnelon.

The junior attacker scored six goals to lead third-seeded Madison to a 16-7 victory over the Colts in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA North, Group I tournament.

Twins Evan and Ali Foulsham eached scored three for the Dodgers (11-8), who outshot Kinnelon 43-18. Marissa Micciche had a hat trick for No. 6 seed Kinnelon, which finishes its season 9-9.

Madison advances to take on Mountain Lakes in the semifinal round. That game will take place at Mountain Lakes High School Friday at 4 p.m.

The Lakers beat Madison 14-8 back on May 11 to win the NJAC-Freedom Division. The Dodgers were without three starters that day, and had not yet figured out Helwig's limitations due to her injury, which she suffered in the May 4 game against Kinnelon.

Rawding has since turned Helwig from a midfielder to an attacker to reduce the stress on the injured ankle.

"It's not getting better, because I'm supposed to stop playing on it and let it heal," Helwig said. "But I'll take some time off after the season."

Helwig will miss Friday's game, though not because of injury - she'll be attending her sister's wedding.

"Obviously Alli's a strong player for us, but we have some other strong players who need to step up Friday," Rawding said.

If the Dodgers don't pull off the victory over the second-seeded Lakers, then Helwig had an excellent .

She fired at will on Kinnelon keeper Maya Stawnychy, scoring four times in the first half and three in the second. The Dodgers got off to a slow start as a team, but Helwig's deadly accurate helped put Madison double Kinnelon's score in the first half regardless.

In contrast to the teams' first meeting on May 4, when Madison took an 11-2 lead after 15 minutes of play, the Colts were in charge for a brief spell early.

Heidi Annaheim and Kara Crompton converted early goals to put Kinnelon up, 2-0, with 19:36 to play. Madison opened the game rushing on the offensive end, missing its first six shots until Emily Rutland's free position goal put the Dodgers on the scoreboard at 18:06.

"I was nervous when our first six shots missed the net," Rawding said. "The Kinnelon goalie did a super job, reading the girls' shots and getting her stick on the ball. We had to take smarter shots and be a little more patient. I was very pleased how we played after the first six minutes or so."

After that, it was all Madison. Helwig's first goal, a free position shot at 14:41, put Madison ahead, 3-2. After Nicole Belanger equalized three minutes later, Rutland controlled the draw, immediately sent a long pass to Chelsea Davies, who found Helwig near the cage. She fired a high shot in one motion to put Madison back ahead, 4-3, with 10:51 to go; the Dodgers wouldn't trail again.

Madison made its first big run at the end of the first half, scoring three times in less than a minute to make it 8-4. Helwig scored on a free position, followed by Ali Foulsham's goal 23 seconds later, and Helwig's fourth 33 seconds after that.

"We've been starting slow a lot lately," Helwig said. "But eventually we realize that we can win the game, we just have to get going."

The second big run, which put the game out of reach, saw Madison score five straight goals over a 10-minute span, turning an 8-5 lead into a comfortable 13-5 cushion. Helwig scored her fifth - assisted for the third time by Kathleen Matthews - with 16:38 left, and finished her tally six minutes later, prior to leaving the game to ice the sprained ankle.

Madison's defense put up its second-straight strong outing in state tournament play. Kinnelon scored just twice from the 11:05 mark of the first half to the 9:33 mark of the second.

The Colts showed some nerves turning the ball over in the face of pressure from the talented defensive troika of Davies, Rachel Misko and Cecelia Matthews.

"We have good leadership on defense," Rawding said. "We're relying on some freshmen and sophomore defenders, but we feel confident with (those three) back there."


BOX SCORE
Madison    8  8  -  16
Kinnelon    4  3  -   7

GOALS
KINN- Marissa Micciche 3, Heidi Annaheim 2, Kara Crompton 1, Nicole Belanger 1
MAD- Alli Helwig 6, Ali Foulsham 3, Evan Foulsham 3, Kathleen Matthews 2, Emily Rutland 1, Chelsea Davies 1

ASSISTS
KINN- Marissa Micciche 2, Virginia Annaheim 2, Toni-Anne Conklin 1, Melissa Landspurg 1
MAD- Kathleen Matthews 3, Chelsea Davies 2, Emily Rutland 1

SHOTS ON GOAL
Kinnelon   10    8  -  18
Madison   25  18  -  43

SAVES
KINN- Maya Stawnychy 19
MAD- Shannon Sweeney 11