Lady Maroons Use Incredible Comeback to Move On

It looked like it was all over, but in a flash, it wasn’t.

Everything the Lady Maroons had worked for all season was on the line, as third-seeded Hillsborough was in control, racing out to a seemingly insurmountable 14-7 lead with less than 14 minutes to go in the game.

It was bleak, the odds were against them, but that’s when Ridgewod showed the mettle and pure determination that championship teams are made of, winning 15-14 to move on to the Group IV Final. 

For most of the game, Hillsborough had brought it to the Maroons. Using team speed and strong defense, as well as dominating draw control to jump out to what was at that point in the game a huge lead, with less than a quarter of the game to go.

In an instant though, the Lady Maroons turned it around. 

First it was Caitlin Concilio who netted two goals in succession to cut the lead to 14-9, but it was still a large hill to climb.

After regaining possession, Sammy Giordano ripped home a big shot. Her goal, to make it 14-10 came after she was held off the scoresheet for the entire first half.

Then, it was Kelci Smesko who made it 14-11 as they began to put all the pressure on to Hillsborough. 

Perhaps the biggest area of trouble for Ridgewood early on was draw control, as Hillsborough was winning possession, but once the goals started coming for the home team, so did the possessions.

Lindsay Weiner then scored with under 10 minutes to go to cut the deficit to only two goals, as the improbable comeback looked possible.

Shortly after, it was Giordano again, cutting the lead to 14-13, with 5:33 to go, plenty of time to find the equalizer.

Kelci Semsko has been quick to step out of the limelight, referring to her senior captains as the real leaders of the team, but Smesko put the game in her control in the final five minutes, as the Duke-bound junior would not deny her captains, her friends, at least one more game of their lacrosse careers.

With 4:41 to play, Smesko found the back of the net to fully erase the deficit, but there was still ample time for both team to score.

That wasn’t the case though, as Smesko won the draw and Ridgewood patiently controlled the ball until the Junior herself ripped home the game winning goal with just 1:36 left to cap an incredible comeback performance.

“We went down seven and that’s not easy to come back from, it’s not something we expected,” said Smesko.  They came in strong and they’re such a great team and then it appeared to us that there was possibly only 14 minutes left in our season and we weren’t going to let that happen.”

For the senior captains, they came up big when needed in an extremely hard fought, physical game.

“We were thinking that this wasn’t going to be our last game of the season, said senior Jess Miller.  “We had a really similar game with Bridgewater last year and we had that confidence and that trust in each other and we all knew that this wasn’t going to be our last game.”

In last year’s North Group IV Final, the team battled Bridgewater-Raritan to a closely contested 16-15 game, a finish no doubt, that helped the Lady Maroons stay poised down the stretch this time around.

“It’s a scary feeling, but we never lost hope,” said Senior Sammy Giordano. “Part of our team is knowing that we are that good and we can come back from those kinds of deficits.”

 “This is a character-building win,” said head coach Karla Mixon. “The seniors stepped up and they were used to being in situations like this and they just had to dig deep.”

In any great season there is always a special moment, one that defines the season and for Ridgewood, if they can use this to springboard themselves on to three more wins, this may very well be it.

A comeback for the ages, no doubt.