Second Half Surge Takes Down Chatham, Now It's On To The 'Ship

One look at the halftime scoreboard may have worried the Lady Maroons, as they found themselves down 7-5.

But, like clockwork, the team stayed calm and collected and used a dominating second half, to defeat Chatham 14-8 and move on to the Tournament of Champions Final.

After an uncharacteristically sloppy first half, Chatham, the Group II Champion, raced out to an early lead and kept on the pressure to go up 7-5 at the half.

Hannah Reader was a rock in net for Chatham, as she made key saves to keep Ridgewood off the board early on.

For Ridgewood, being down at the half is nothing new and though the Lady Cougars had their mind set on avenging their early season 15-9 loss to Ridgewood, that would not be the case.

Jess Miller came out firing in the second half and she scored three times in a row to erase the deficit and from there the Lady Maroons never looked back. 

The combination of Kelci Smesko and Sally Jentis resulted in Ridgewood dominating the draws and winning the time of possession battle by a landslide in the second half.

Jentis, playing her first game in more than a month after coming down with Mononucleosis, contributed two goals and made some great hustle plays as well. For Jentis, with an illness such as mono, where there’s no timetable for recovery, she faced the idea that she may never play for Ridgewood again.

“It was really scary, when we played Hillsborough and I was home in bed sick and I heard we were down seven, I thought, oh no I didn’t want that to be our last game, but in the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t my last game and that we could come back,” said Jentis. “Being back, it’s so awesome, I’m just so glad that I got play with my team in my senior year again.”

The Ridgewood defense was equally as impressive in the second half, as the team pressured the ball all the way down the field and forced the Morris County school into some costly turnovers, which resulted in goals for the Maroons.

Lindsay Weiner, Kelci Smesko, Lauren Beausoleil and Maggie Carver all scored in the second half, in which Ridgewood scored eight unanswered goals before Jaclyn Leto scored for Chatham with only 1:12 to play.

Jess Miller led the way for the Lady Maroons, netting 6 goals on the day. Weiner, Smesko and Jentis chipped in with 2 apiece.

Miller, stepped up once again, helping to lead her team to a comeback and to clinch a spot in the T.O.C final.

“I’ve never seen our team want it more than we did in that second half, we worked hard and it really paid off for us in the end,” said Miller. “It truly came from all of our hearts we just knew how much we wanted it, this was not going to be our last game, there was no way.”

Next up, in the final game of the year, is another big clash between teams from opposite ends of the state.  Ridgewood will face Moorestown for the 2011 State Title.  

In a season that has seen its share of blowout wins, gutty come from behind performances and stellar play against quality opponents, it all comes down to one last game.

“It means we can defend our title, we lost some great players last year, but we had a lot return and some new players came in and stepped up,” said Coach Karla Mixon. “I’m just happy that we’re able to defend our title because we have the strength and it just makes sense that we’re playing against Moorestown.”

The final defense of their title begins at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Rutgers. 

“It feels great to be playing Moorestown, they’re our rivals and we played them earlier in the season and hopefully we can come out strong and keep our title,” said Sally Jentis.

With two storied programs going head to head for a title, we can expect nothing less than an all out battle on Saturday, with everything on the line.