Girls Lacrosse Falls to Local Rival, Chatham

SUMMIT–Saturday afternoon's game featuring the Summit and Chatham girls lacrosse teams was a tale of two halves. The Chatham cougars dominated the first half, putting 11 points on the board to Summit's one. The Hilltoppers played a much better second half, however, and controlled possession and outscored Chatham 5-2. In the end, the Hilltoppers were unable to overcome the large early deficit, and fell to the Cougars by a final of 13-6.

"Today, Chatham was clearly the better team," Summit head coach Rob Grella said. "They have great players. We came back and only allowed two goals in the second half, and we fought all the way through. That's all you can really ask for."

The Hilltoppers won the first two draws of the game but were unable to capitalize offensively. Chatham, on the other hand, capitalized on virtually every first half possession.

"Lacrosse is a game of possession, and that was one of our main goals–to maintain possession," Chatham head coach Deb Marriott said.

Chatham sophomore Jaclyn Leto scored the game's first goal at the 21:07 mark after her teammate, Paige McKenna, intercepted a Hilltopper pass. Fellow sophomore Kelsey Perselay scored four minutes later to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead, followed by a "man-up" goal by Chatham's Emma Ehler.

The Cougars then went on a scoring spree and found the back of the net four times in just over a minute. In the blink of an eye, the Cougars' 3-0 lead turned into a 7-0 advantage.

To their credit, the Hilltoppers did not hang their heads. They continued to play hard and knew that their effort would soon be rewarded. With 10:40 remaining in the half, it was. Summit's Kendall Speno won a ground ball to give her team possession, and Caroline Cordrey put the Hilltoppers on the board seconds later with a quick flick of the wrist to make the score 7-1.

The Hilltoppers kept applying pressure but had difficulty getting another shot past Chatham goalie Lydia Jenkins, who played a tremendous game and racked up 21 saves on the day.

Before the end of the half, the Cougars were able to control three draws and put four more points on the board. At the half, Chatham led 11-1.

"At halftime, I told the girls that we needed to get things together," Grella said. "We've had two tough losses by a goal, and I said, at the end of the day, it's not the scoreboard that's going to say whether we won or lost, it's our effort."

The Hilltoppers responded well to the pep talk and looked like a different team in the second half. They won the first two draws, and capitalized on both when Megan Paytas and Kelly Osmulski each scored to cut into Chatham's lead, 11-3. Summit's defense also stepped up and held the Cougars scoreless for the half's first 11 minutes. The Hilltoppers limited the Cougars to just two goals in the second half.

Summit found the back of the net three more times with two Caroline Cordrey goals and one by Clare O'Malley. The first half deficit proved to be too much for them to overcome, however, and Summit fell to Chatham by a final score of 13-6.

Coach Rob Grella said that his team will learn from today's game and apply what they learned next week and beyond.

"We have to keep our intensity up," Grella said. "I think we came into the season thinking we were going to win, win, win, and maybe not have to work as hard. But we know now that we've got to stay focused, work hard, and keep our intensity up every day."

Summit travels to West Essex for their 4 p.m. game against the Knights this Wednesday.