IHA Falls to Ramapo in County Soccer Tournament

ORADELL – Paul Heenehan has more career wins than other girls soccer coach in the history of New Jersey. He started the Ramapo girls soccer program and has shepherded it through a record 12 Bergen County championships including five in a row from 1981-1985, also a record. Ramapo's legacy is secure, but boy was Immaculate Heart Academy ever so close to grabbing a little some history of its own.

The Blue Eagles had won the county championship four straight times coming into this year's tournament and although all parties involved with the Green Raiders would sign a sworn affidavit claiming they are only interested in the present and this year's journey, it would be impossible to believe that guarding their slice of tournament lore was solely an afterthought when the two premier programs met up in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon at River Dell High School.

“It was discussed only because it was brought up in the paper (editor's note: he said paper, not the website you are currently browsing) a number of times and I'll address things when they become public,” said Heenehan. “I take a tremendous amount of pride in the fact that Ramapo has done what it has done in the past, but this is about this team.”

What this team did was score three times in a nine-minute span early in the second half as Ramapo ended IHA's four-year reign with a 3-0 win. And, despite a hint of denial, there was satisfaction in that.

“I think what they love is that they kept the legacy going. I was very surprised at their reaction when we talked about it in practice and how positive it was,” added Heenehan. “I don't talk about the history of it too much, I let others do that, but this team embraced it.”

Despite all of its past success, Ramapo has not won a county title since 2003 and even though it was wearing the white jerseys befitting the higher seed against an IHA team that had to replace that 14 seniors that were the bedrock of its historic four year run of dominance, there was no score at halftime. In fact, it was the Blue Eagles that had the most dangerous chance in the first 40 minutes as sophomore Camille Didio launched a dipping line drive from 35 yards out that just missed as it whistled over the crossbar. Even still, at 0-0 through one half of play, IHA (12-2) had to have liked its chances.

“We did some really good things today and we had some really good possessions in the first half,” said IHA head coach Steve Silver. “We were just like one special thing away from having a lead and I thought we could build on that.”

But the warning signs were also evident as Ramapo was winning 50/50 balls in the midfield and was playing through junior midfielder Jen Andresen, who showed she is all the way back from some nagging injuries that weighed her down over the last couple of weeks. She was going sideline to sideline, taking on defenders and setting up scoring chances for herself and for her teammates. One of them was Amanda Baumgarten, a senior who took a pass in the slot from Andresen and buried it to give Ramapo the lead for good just 1:35 into the second half.

“Jen was coming down the side and she got through, I think, three players and she just got [the pass] off in time. I just tried to get a foot on it, the goalie came out and it went right past her,” said Baumgarten, part of a day of success in her family as her father, Ramapo boys coach Evan Baumgarten, also led his team through to the county final on Sunday. “The first goal was the hardest to get. At halftime we knew we were playing a team that was evenly matched with us, but we just wanted it so bad. We came out and put one away in the first two minutes and we just kept going.”

Less than three minutes later Ramapo's Haley Roccio wrestled away a 50/50 ball in the middle of the field and then used her left foot to push it forward and right on the foot of Caroline Chagaras, who was in space and inside the 18. Chagaras chose the lower left, inside the last defender but just outside the reach of IHA keeper Kassandra Nunez to put Ramapo in front 2-0.

“When you play Ramapo you just know that you have to win the 50/50s and even on our punts and our goal kicks, it was work getting it out. I thought it started with a good presence in their midfield and it made it a lot for difficult for us to build [an attack],” said Silver. “Momentum is a strange thing. For a young group I thought maybe we put our heads down a little bit when we got scored upon. I think maybe the moment was a little bit too big for us today with our inexperience and we have to grow from that.”

Ramapo's lead grew from two goals to three in the 51st minute and the tally was built from back to middle to front. It started when Devan Schulte won a ball in the back and then knocked her clearance off an attacker to give Ramapo a throw-in from deep in its own end. Andresen flicked Roccio throw onward and a header by IHA's Elizabeth Miller turned into a header by Baumgarten and then a ball that was on the ground. That when Andresen rejoined the play, sliced through two defenders and picked a corner for the game's final goal.

It would be hard to find a player on the Ramapo side that did not contribute in some way. Gabby Even-Chen, a transfer from Bergen Tech who had to sit out 30 days at the start of the season, provided a spark off the bench on the flanks, and the back line of Tori Woetzel, Sam Jurgens and sweeper Madeline Daly made it a relatively comfortable day for keeper Ally Gilard, who made five saves.

“Obviously they have some really strong forwards and we had to keep them to shot outside. We practiced it and we just had to keep them from getting behind us,” said Daly, Ramapo's senior sweeper. “Our defense did a great job and we didn't let them get by us.”

Next up for Ramapo (14-1) is its other rival...twice. The Green Raiders will play Northern Highlands in a regular season match on Thursday that will determine the league championship and then the two will face off again next Saturday in the county final at Indian Hills High School. Highlands handed Ramapo its lone loss of the season and did it convincingly, 6-2, back on September 22, but a month is a dog's age in high school soccer and Ramapo is playing better now than it has all season.

“We knew that we could play like this as a team and I think it took a great team like IHA to get it out of us. We obviously tripped early in the season, but we have grown so much,” said Heenehan. “This is why we have busted our [behinds] for the last eight weeks.”

Click here to see more photos from the game.