Girls Lacrosse Drops a Close One

The Millburn girls lacrosse team came about as close to winning as you can. But because of some last-second heroics from the visiting Montville Mustangs, the Miller girls ended up on the wrong side of a 15-14 contest at Millburn High School on Wednesday afternoon.

After Millburn sophomore Janie Penney tied the game with 47 seconds left to go, scoring off of a set play, Montville’s Ashley Miller won the ensuing draw and weaved her way down the field to fire the game-winner into the back of the net. Millburn had a chance to tie again with 12.5 seconds left to play, but the Mustang goalie made the save and Montville escaped with the victory.

“I think they really played fantastic,” Millburn Head Coach Cory Connor said of her team after the game. “The defense was right on, they were going to the ball, they were doubling, they were tripling, they were communicating. Midfield looked good, they were connecting, they were great in transition and offense really did a great job down there. We just ran out of time.”

The contest was a back-and-forth battle between two teams that have had opposite fortunes this season. Millburn came in looking for its first home victory of the season and for its first conference win of the year, sporting a 1-4 overall record. On the other side of the ball, Montville came in with a 3-1 record, winners of its last three, in second place in the Northern Hills Conference, and with the top defense in the league, surrendering just under eight goals per contest.

Despite the disparity in records, the two teams were neck-and-neck the entire way through.

“This would have been a real confidence booster for the girls had we won, but staying with them through the whole game was good,” Connor said

With 9:39 left to play in the contest, Miller sophomore Nicki Schiller gave her team a 13-11 lead, after picking up a bouncing pass and firing it past the keeper for the score. But Montville just would not be denied. A bit more than a minute later, the Mustangs were within one.

Millburn, clinging to the one-point lead, tried to pass the ball around and keep it away from the Mustangs, but a checking foul on the Millers forced the turnover to Montville with 6:20 left to play. The visitors wasted no time, immediately racing down the field, where Miller tied the score at 13 with 5:35 to play, receiving a pass on the side of the net and rifling it home. She scored the next Montville goal to put the Mustangs up by one at the 4:22 mark.

“Really in the last few minutes, when we had possession of the ball, what I wanted them to do was hold onto the ball and work it around until we got pressured,” Connor said. “But unfortunately, one of the girls went in, they saved it and it turned [the ball] over to the other side.”

The Millers, who came in to the contest averaging just over 10 scores per game, could not be kept off of the board. Sophomore Hallie Pickard started up the scoring burning down the field, losing a defender and bouncing the score into the bottom right corner of the net. From that point on, both squads matched each other goal for goal and went into the half tied at seven.

Penney, along with fellow sophomore Schiller, turned in stellar performances for the Millers. Penney scored a team high six goals and added an assist. Schiller logged four scores and two helpers. For Montville, Miller tallied five goals and four assists, while Kim Ambruster scored four of her seven in the second half and added three assists.

Millburn is in action again on Friday at Villa Walsh Academy.