Boys Lax Falls to Summit In Battle of State's Best

1 2 3 4 Total Summit 1 1 3 2 7 Ridgewood 1 2 1 2 6

For 47 and ½ minutes, Ridgewood was right there matching Summit blow for blow. But in the end, Summit got the last shot of this heavyweight bout, to keep its winning streak alive, defeating the Maroons 7-6.

Coming into the game, Ridgewood was full of confidence after a strong week of play, but Tuesday’s game against Summit was a big-time challenge. The task was to defeat the #1 team in New Jersey, who hadn’t lost a game since April 1 of 2009.

The game was a chess match between two immensely talented squads and it played out like a playoff game. The hitting was vicious and there wasn’t a ground ball that wasn’t fiercely contested.

Ridgewood had a 6-5 lead with less than three minutes to go in the fourth quarter and had the man advantage, but failed to score as they turned the ball over. 

Sonny Round tallied the equalizer for the Hilltoppers with just 2:30 to go and though it seemed as if 48 minutes wouldn’t be enough to decide the outcome, Mike Ford ripped home a shot that put Summit up for good.  

Though this loss certainly stings for the Maroons, it played well in the loss. Though it struggled with the man advantage, its man-down play was excellent throughout the day. 

Ridgewood went into the half leading 3-2 and as the third quarter became a defensive struggle. With scoring hard to come by the next goal would be huge and  Summit scored not once, but three times in the third quarter to come racing back, taking a 5-3 lead.

Andrew Toner scored a tremendous goal from in close with under a minute to go to cut the lead to 5-4 heading into the half, darting in front of the net and flipping the ball into the goal while being hit from two sides. 

In the fourth, Garett Clarke tied the game up for the Maroons as the momentum began to swing in Ridgewood's favor, and then Max Luing banged home a shot that put Ridgewood up and sent the large home crowd into a frenzy.

“We just had too many mistakes, we turned the ball over in the clearing game and we didn’t execute with the extra man, we just made too many mistakes to win today,” said Head Coach Mike Pounds.

Both teams played stifling defense, with Summit using multiple zone looks to try and stifle Ridgewood’s offense. Noah Pounds was very solid between the pipes once again for Ridgewood as he finished with 8 saves on the day.

“We played a good game but we made too many mistakes to come out on top,” said senior Garett Clarke. “Hopefully we’ll see them again, but we just have to forget about it and get back to practice now.”

Give credit to Summit though, as it played a tremendous game en route to its 61^st consecutive victory, showing poise when trailing late in the fourth quarter.

Though this was a tough pill to swallow for a team that believed they could beat Summit and did in fact out play them for parts of Tuesday’s game, Ridgewood will have to quickly move on.

If Ridgewood does hope to see Summit again, its next opportunity would be in the state tournament of champions, if both teams win the respective group brackets.  The idea isn’t so far fetched considering that both teams looked to be championship-caliber in what was nothing short of a phenomenal 48 minutes of lacrosse.

The Maroons are in action again with a big game with fellow Group-III team Morristown on Thursday at home.