Madison Girls Lax Drops Heartbreaker To Kent Place

The Madison Dodgers girls lacrosse team needed a two-second miracle to complete its two-minute frantic comeback. They almost got it.

But "almost" meant that the Dodgers dropped their second game in three days, 9-8, to Kent Place Saturday afternoon at Madison High School.

"We're not satisfied," said Madison coach Carole Rawding.

Kent Place led by three goals until the 2:15 mark of the second half, when Emily Rutland pulled the Dodgers within 9-7. Chelsea Davies won a ground ball off the ensuing draw, but Madison turned it over twice in the next two minutes.

The Dragons tried to stall and run out the clock, but unlike in Thursday's loss to Columbia, Madison was able to force turnovers against its time-wasting opponent to get back on attack. Freshman Kayla Fennelly scored on a free position shot with 25 seconds left to set up a frantic finish.

"We played with focus and confidence," Rawding said. "We started playing the way we know how to play in those last two minutes. I really wanted that overtime, because I thought that we would win the game if we got there."

Alli Helwig won possession on the draw, but Madison lost possession around the Kent Place cage. The Dragons advanced the ball about 30 yards away from goal before losing it themselves with precious few seconds remaining.

In a scrum for the ball, Rachel Misko was fouled with two seconds to play. When the whistle blew for a restart, she instantly found Helwig on a long pass. Helwig took a shot from about 15 yards away that would have counted, and could have sent the game to overtime. But the shot landed securely in the crosse of Kent Place goalie Becca Rosen as the buzzer sounded.

"That was the best shot we could have asked for," Rawding said. "Rachel made a great connection to Alli, and Alli has a very hard shot. Their goalie made a great play."

Kathleen Matthews led Madison (4-2) with a pair of goals and an assist.

The two teams were evenly matched, but Kent Place got out to an early lead and was able to hang on.

The Dragons scored four straight goals over a 2:13 span of the first half to take a 6-3 lead. Madison had no answer for Anna Doherty, who scored all four of her goals in the first half.

The Dodgers did pull within 6-5 on a free position goal by Matthews with 5:16 to go in the first, but Kent Place won the ensuing draw, and Doherty doubled the Dragons' lead 26 seconds later.

Madison came out with a flourish in the second half, containing the Kent Place attack and allowing just three second-half shots on goal.

"We cleaned up our defense in the second half," Rawding said. "We started to communicate, we didn't let them get inside."

Liz Gully converted two of those shots for goals, beating Madison goalie Shannon Sweeney high to make it 9-6 with 9:21 to play, but that would be the last Kent Place tally.

The Dodgers had numerous good looks at the cage to cut into that deficit. But Rawding felt her attackers didn't do enough to make Rosen uncomfortable.

"We have some outstanding shooters," Rawding said. "I want them to show their stuff more. I thought we needed to move the ball against their goalie, use better shot selection."

Rosen stopped seven of the 10 shots she faced in the second stanza, most of them coming in between Madison's sixth goal - by Evan Foulsham at the 21:22 mark of the second half - and its seventh, Rutland's goal 19 minutes later.

Madison, which played with three freshmen and sophomores on attack at times, dropped to 0-2 in the highly-competitive New Jersey Girls Lacrosse League, with games against state powers Chatham and Mendham still to come.

"We've got some freshmen and sophomores out there," Rawding said. "We need to get them some work on this level, because we think they'll get to where they need to be. But they're not there yet.

"I'd rather us be where we are now, at 4-2, and have games like this, then be 9-0 against lesser competition."

NEXT UP
The competition keeps getting tougher for Madison this week, beginning with a Monday afternoon game against Summit. The game is set for a 4 p.m. start at Summit High School.

The Hilltoppers (3-3) most recently , in a rematch of last year's North, Group II championship game.

After that, the Dodgers will travel Thursday afternoon to Chatham, currently ranked third in the state according to the LaxPower.com computer rankings.

BOX SCORE
Kent Place     7  2  -  9
Madison         5  3  -  8

GOALS
KP- Anna Doherty 4, Liz Gully 3, Christine Doherty 1, Krista Zsitfay 1
MAD- Kathleen Matthews 2, Evan Foulsham 2, Emily Rutland 2, Alli Helwig 1, Kayla Fennelly 1

ASSISTS
KP- Liz Gully 1
MAD- Ali Foulsham 2, Kathleen Matthews 1

SHOTS ON GOAL
Kent Place    9    3  -  12
Madison        9  10  -  19

SAVES
KP- Becca Rosen 11
MAD- Shannon Sweeney 3