Weekly Sports Roundup: MKA, Montclair Headed for Lacrosse Showdown?

If all goes as expected, the MHS and MKA boys’ lacrosse teams will be facing each other on April 30 in the Essex County Tournament.
    

With an undefeated record at 8-0, Montclair Kimberley Academy received the second seed in the ECT and will face the winner of Saturday's 10th-seeded Newark Academy with seventh-seeded Montclair.
    

On the girls’ side, both Montclair and MKA will play in the quarterfinals of the Essex County Tournament on Saturday. Seventh-seeded Montclair Kimberley takes on second-seeded West Essex, while sixth-seeded Montclair travels to third-seeded Columbia. 

While Montclair received a bye in the first round, Montclair Kimberley might have put some notice to the rest of the Essex County lacrosse teams by qualifying with six wins early on. The Lady Cougars defeated eighth-seeded Livingston, 17-7, in the first round of the ECT on Saturday at home.  Skylar Zlotnick led the way with five goals and two assists. Kerry Fusco and Allison Bond added three goals each.
    

The Lady Mounties took home their second win of the season with a 13-7 victory over Ramapo at Franklin Lakes on April 14.  The duo of Clare Keating and Charlotte von Hoffman led the way for Montclair as they each scored three times. Jamie Putman and Delaney Gilson notched a pair of goals each to help the Lady Mounties’ cause.
 Montclair goal keeper Lucy Ferguson preserved the victory by making 19 saves.

In boys’ lacrosse, 

Montclair finally got on the winning side of the ledger.  The win came Saturday with a 9-8 victory at Northern Highlands.  After the game, the Mounties were 1-5 heading into the Essex County Tournament. Mike Colella and Drew Nesmith notched two goals each to lead the Montclair attack. Colella added two assists to his resume in the game. 
 Montclair goal keeper Jim Sestilio made 11 saves to grab the first 2011 victory.
  Montclair Kimberley stayed undefeated at 8-0 after defeating Holmdel, 6-3, on the road in an independent game on Wednesday. 
    

In addition to being undefeated overall, the Cougars are in first place in the Waterman Lacrosse standings, ahead of St. Peter’s Prep.
 Against Holmdel, senior Jack Strain scoring, combined with the goaltending of Craig Schweitzer, led the way for Montclair Kimberley. In the low-scoring contest, Strain scored three goals while Schweitzer collected eight saves, including shutting out Holmdel in the third quarter.
   

The Cougars were coming off a big 5-4 at Johnson on April 16 in overtime. Patrick Karole scored a goal in overtime to win it for Montclair Kimberley. He also scored the tying goal with less than two minutes in the fourth quarter. 

Baseball

: Montclair hit a bump in the road of what may be a big season when they fell 7-2 to Millburn in a Super Essex Conference American division battle at Millburn.
 The Mounties could not figure out Miller’s pitcher Dan Frischman and found themselves down 5-0. Montclair scored a pair of runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 5-2 behind a pair of doubles from Miles Davenport and Brett Cooper.
 But Montclair could not get any closer.
   

Early in the game, Mounties ace Sam Ackerman had to come out of the game in the second inning. Ackerman was hit in the right leg by a line drive in the first inning. He made it through the first inning, but had trouble pushing off the rubber in the second inning. Evan Janifer, who dropped to 5-3 on the season, had an RBI single for Montclair.
    

Despite the loss to Millburn, Montclair has shown that they can battle the best in Essex as they have defeated both Livingston and Seton Hall Prep this season.
  Montclair won possibly its biggest game of the season so far when the Mounties upset Seton Hall Prep, 4-3, on April 15 in West Orange.
 With the game tied at one going into extra innings, Montclair scored three times in the top of the eighth inning, while Mounties pitcher Chris Pignatello held off a Seton Hall Prep comeback to secure the win. Evan Janifer was 2-for-4 for the game with one RBI and one stolen base. Sam Ackerman was on base twice while scoring one of the runs.
   

Montclair Kimberley rebounded from its first loss of the season (5-3 at West Essex on April 15) with a 6-0 verdict at Technology on Wednesday to go 3-1 on the season.
 Cougars pitcher Mike High fired a four-hitter while striking out six to propel MKA in the SEC contest. Gabe DiMasi went 2-for-3 on the day with two RBI to lead the Montclair Kimberley offense. Robert Pannullo also had a pair of hits and added an RBI as the Cougars scored a pair of runs in the second inning and three runs in the third inning to go up 5-0. 

Softball

: One of the hottest teams in Essex County is Montclair, who won their sixth straight contest on Wednesday after dropping Glen Ridge, 10-0, at home. Carly Goldstein scattered five hits while striking out nine to keep the Lady Ridgers at bay. Offensively, Charlotte Skutch went 3-or-4 on the day with four RBI. Tori Sneden also knocked in four runs for the game that included a triple. Deja Davis went 2-for-4 in the game.
 The Lady Mounties pretty much had the game in the bag after scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-0 lead in the Super Essex Conference Liberty division battle. 

On Saturday at the Black and Gold Tournament in Cedar Grove, Montclair showed off its muscle with a dominating 13-0 victory over Cranford.
  The victory continued the hot pace by the Lady Mounties with their fourth straight victory.
 Offensively, it was a combination of Sara Haefeli and Sneden who propelled Montclair. Haefeli had four hits and Sneden collected three hits. 
 In the circle, Goldstein kept the Cougars at bay by firing a four-hitter.
    

Montclair Kimberley continues to go through growing pains as they dropped a 12-0 decision on Wednesday at home against Livingston. Nicole Layne had the lone hit for the Lady Cougars, who were stymied by Livingston pitcher Jess Peslak.


  

Volleyball:  
Montclair just fell short of upsetting one of the better Essex County teams in Science Park on Wednesday.
 The Mounties took the Chargers to a third game after defeating Science Park, 25-14, in the second game after a 25-19 loss in the first game.
  After a back-and-forth third game, Montclair could not get that final stretch to upset the Chargers as the Mounties dropped a 25-23 decision in the third game. Montclair dropped to 3-4 on the season.  Montclair was led by Max Hersh who registered 14 kills against the Chargers. Brian Lagrua set up the Mounties offense with 26 assists. Javier Teitelbaum added six kills and had three service aces.