And They All Fall Down: RHS Squads Out of State Tournaments

The Ridgewood sports team had some success in their respective state tournaments, but not enough to get into the second week of the state sectional finals.

The Maroons boys basketball, girls basketball and ice hockey teams saw their dreams for a state title go up in smoke in the second round.

For both basketball squads, the second round games were close and if either Ridgewood team had a couple of more trips down the court they would have moved on to the semi-finals.

The Ridgewood girls team dropped a 42-41 decision to neighborhood rival Fair Lawn while the Maroons boys team also was knocked out in the second round of the Group 4 North 1 state section, this time to Montclair, 65-61.

Boys basketball   

Fourteenth-seeded Ridgewood defeated third-seeded Memorial, 56-55, in Hudson County on Feb. 28 in the first round. The Maroons Cinderella run stopped in the Group 4 North 1 quarterfinals on Wednesday at 11th-seeded Montclair.

In the win over Memorial, Anthony Balboa hit a free throw with seconds remaining to hand head coach Mike Troy his first postseason victory. Balboa would collect seven points in the contest. Evan Bartlik again led the way this time with 23 points against Memorial.

Against Montclair, Ridgewood boys got behind early and started to catch-up, but could not climb the ladder all the way.
The Maroons were down 21-7 after the first quarter and were behind by 15, 55-40 heading into the fourth quarter.

Ridgewood's Bartlik collected a game-high 26 points to led the way for the Maroons, which included hitting 17 free throws.

Alex Cohen chipped in 13 points but Ridgewood did not have any other player in double figures. The Mounties had four players in double figures, led by Kabir West with 19. The Ridgewood boys finished with a 15-13 record.

Girls basketball

Eight-seed Ridgewood defeated ninth-seeded Clifton, 63-41 in the first round on Feb. 28 and then received the upset bug as 16th-seeded Fair Lawn nipped the Lady Maroons on Wednesday at home.

At home against Clifton, Ridgewood took control in the first half and was ahead by 12, 30-18 by halftime.

The Lady Maroons had a big game from three players. Kelci Smesko led the squad with 22 points and had a double-double with 11 rebounds while also chipping in six steals.

Meghan Roxas and Lauren Beausoleil chipped in 19 and 16 points respectively. Beausoleil led the team with 10 steals while Courtney Tarleton added four rebounds.

On Wednesday Ridgewood hosted Fair Lawn, and had the ball to win the game in the final seconds. The Lady Maroons though could not put the ball in the net in the final seconds to put them over the Lady Cutters.

Ridgewood became the second victim of 16th-seeded Fair Lawn. The Lady Cutters came in after knocking off the top seed, North Bergen, in the first round.
Fair Lawn just had too much depth compared to Ridgewood.

Beausoleil led the Lady Maroons with 17 points while Kelci Smesko added 14 points for Ridgewood in the season's final game. Ridgewood ended with a 14-11 record; nine Lady Cutters sccored in the state playoff match. 

Ice hockey

Just like the basketball teams, the Ridgewood ice hockey team saw its season end in the second round.

Ridgewood, the 11th seed in Public A, defeated 22nd-seeded Wall, 4-3, at the Ice House in Hackensack on Feb. 28. The Maroons ice hockey team ended in the second round with a 6-1 loss at Hillsborough on Thursday.

In the victory over Wall, the Maroons offense got on the board fast and led 3-0 after the first period with goals from David Hefferan, Jake Middleton and Kevin Entwistle.

And then it was the player of Ridgewood goalie Kasey Zegel who made big saves in the third period to preserve the first round state victory. Zegel would make 27 saves on the night.

With the win over Wall, Ridgewood traveled to Somerset County and was knocked out by sixth-seeded Hillsborough, 6-1, on Thursday in the second round of the Public A tournament.

Being down 2-0 for the majority of the game proved the death knell. Entwistle scored the lone goal for the Maroons but it just wasn't enough.