Millburn Girls Lax Advances in State Playoffs

Millburn’s offensive trio of Janie Penney, Nicole Schiller and Hallie Pickard were virtually unstoppable on Monday afternoon, scoring a combined 16 goals to lead the Miller girls lacrosse team to a 17-9 first round state playoff victory over Roxbury at Dr. Keith A. Neigel Field.

The Millers, possibly playing in their last home game of the season, came out on a clear mission to put the Gaels away early and pick up their first playoff win in over three years.

“Especially for us seniors, this is our last game on this field and I know that really gave me a lot of inspiration and determination to start this game,” Pickard said. “I know that I wanted to remember my last game on this field as a good one. I think we all really worked together, this is a really close team this year, so we all definitely did not want the season to end and I think that was a big motivation.”

Less than eight minutes into the game, the locals were already up 7-0 behind four scores from Schiller, two from Pickard and one from Penney. Up until then, the girls had gone 6-1 on draws and were putting on a scoring clinic, moving the ball up and down the field and through Roxbury’s defense at will.

“We knew we were the better team, we knew we were the higher seed so we came out with that mindset,” Penney said. “We wanted to get goals in the back of the net and then use the clock to our advantage for the rest of the game.”

Roxbury got one back with 17:28 left in the opening half, but Penney connected on one of her six assists, finding Emily Butcher inside the crease for the score 19 seconds later. On Millburn’s next score, Penney intercepted a pass from Roxbury’s keeper and put the ball low and into the back of the net, giving Millburn a 9-1 lead. With 12:47 left in the first half, Pickard connected with Schiller, who converted for a score on a bouncer, giving the Millers a nine score lead.

Back-to-back goals by Roxbury’s Danielle Wilk and Kellie Kucinski, cut Millburn’s lead down to seven with 10:38 left in the first half. But Pickard weaved through traffic for a score at seven minutes, Schiller threaded a ball through the defense for another and Penney took a pass from Pickard and finished to complete a run of three straight to put the Millers up by 10. Pickard, who finished with six assists, connected with Schiller cutting to the net for a score with 4:57 remaining, putting the girls up by 11, essentially ending the game.

“We were getting the 50/50 balls, the balls where it was anyone‘s ball and we just had that extra step on them,” Penney said. “We had that desire to get the ball in the beginning of the game. All of us wanted it so badly.”

Because of two disallowed Millburn goals (due to stick violations), Roxbury scored the game’s next three goals, making things somewhat interesting, with 13:25 left to play, and Millburn up by seven.

But a little under three minutes later, Pickard streaked down the middle of Roxbury’s defense and finished high in the net, breaking a 19:06 scoring drought for the Millers. Schiller and Penney added the final two Millburn scores.

The game boiled down to Millburn winning the possession battle and the Millers having the best three players on the field. The locals won the draw battle 18-9 and the groundball battle 29-19. Schiller tallied eight goals, while Penney and Pickard each registered four scores and six assists.

Roxbury, which fell to 6-14 with the loss, were led by three goals from Kucinski and a pair of scores from Wilk.

Fifth seeded Millburn, which is now 10-7 after the win, awaits the winner of 13 seed Mt. Olive and four seed West Windsor North, for the second round on Thursday.

“I think that our season is definitely not over yet, because we have a really talented team and we have the ability to go far,” Penney said.