Millburn Girls Lacrosse Falls at Home

The Miller girls lacrosse team suffered its second loss of the season, falling at Dr. Keith A. Neigel Field against state power -- and defending Group 2 state champs -- Chatham, 23-13. Millburn was able to hang around and even led in the contest at one point, but a 10-4 second half advantage helped the Cougars pull away late in this one.

“I’m so proud of them,” said Miller head coach Penny Kaye of her team. “They played really, really well, they played hard till the last second. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

“The offense was just clicking,” said Chatham head coach Deb Marriott. “They were connecting on their passes, they were just lighting up their transition game and they also were just working it well when they got into a settled offense as well.”

Millburn came out firing, scoring four of the game’s first six goals to take a 4-2 lead early on in the first half. But with just over 16 minutes left, Marriott called a timeout to get her team re-focused.

The result was Chatham scoring three consecutive goals in slightly more than one minute to take a 5-4 lead. Millburn was able to tie the score twice after that, but the Cougars never trailed again in the contest and slowly began to pull away.

“What I was disappointed in was our defensive play,” Marriott said. “We did not play a good game defensively at all. We were planting our feet on defense, we weren’t making contact and we were also just not playing our defensive game that we normally play.”

At 15:01, Chatham’s Kate Murphy took a pass in front of Millburn’s net, made a move to her left and found space for a goal, giving the Cougars their first lead. Millburn’s Nicole Schiller answered the goal with one of her own with 13:09 in the first half, coming off of a restart from a Chatham foul.

Kelcie Ehler scored Chatham’s sixth goal, cutting right through the middle of Millburn’s defense for the goal at the 11:17 mark in the opening half. Twenty four seconds later, Lily Orlan tied the game again, coming off of a won draw by the Millers and bouncing it in from about eight yards out.

“I think they expected to come in here and walk all over us and we gave them a really good run for their money and then they had to step their game up,” Kaye said.

With the match knotted, Chatham won the next two draws and scored off of both of them within 46 seconds, getting goals from Meghan Dunne and then Kallan Murray. With 9:33 let in the half, Liz Hyde bounced one in to put Chatham up 9-6.

From there, the Miller girls could not get closer than two goals, as Chatham seemed to answer every Millburn score almost immediately. With 5:55 left in the opening half, Janie Penney found Meghan Lacy on the left side of Chatham’s net to close to 10-8. But seniors Jaclyn Leto and Kelsey Perselay (who coupled for 11 goals and three assists) responded with a pair of scores by the 3:27 mark. Both Schiller and Perselay tacked on scores before halftime, sending the game into the break, with the Cougars up 13-9.

Chatham started the second half on a 5-1 run, opening up an eight goal lead. Schiller and Lacy scored the next two for Millburn to get the Blue and White within six with 11:56 to play. However, two goals by Leto and another by Perselay within the next two minutes ended Millburn’s chance at a late comeback.

“I don’t really think that the score is indicative of how well our defense played,” Kaye said. “I think our girls played really, really well. I booked this game because I wanted them to have the opportunity to play a top team in the state because I think they deserve it.”

As it usually is in lacrosse, possession made the difference in the game. Chatham scooped up 23 groundballs compared to 16 for Millburn, the Cougars won 22 draws, compared to 16 for the Millers and partially as a result, the Cougars out-shot Millburn, 36-29. Winning the draws was key for Chatham’s offense, which turned 10 draws into nearly immediate goals, essentially winning the draw, coming down the field and scoring. Millburn did the same four times.

“It’s a game of possession and normally we do control the draw quite well,” Marriott said. “We had to switch it up this time, because we were not getting them the way we’re used to.”

“In the game of lacrosse you have to get the draw,” Kaye said. “Possession is 90 percent of it.”

Millburn was led by five goals and an assist from Schiller and two goals and three assists from Penney. Chatham was led by Leto who had six goals and two assists. They also got five goals from Perselay and four from Kallan Murray.

Millburn, which fell to 4-2 after the loss, scored more goals against the Cougars than any other team this season and can certainly use the game as something to build off of, heading into a very tough divisional match up next week against West Essex.

Chatham improved to 4-2 and look like an offensive machine, scoring 51 goals over its last three games. They are in action again on Saturday at Manhasset.