KEARNY - Back on October 2, the Ridgewood's girls soccer team was faced with a situation where it had to win one its next two games to qualify for the Bergen County tournament. The Maroons handed then-unbeaten Clifton a 2-1 loss that day, the Mustangs' only loss of the season.

All that was at stake for Ridgewood in Tuesday's North 1, Group 4 first-round showdown with top-seeded Kearny, which was undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the state, was the end of its season.

The fifth-seeded Maroons (12-6-1) responded by slaying the giant with a stunning 1-0 victory at Kearny's Harvey Field. Not bad for a squad that a little more than two weeks ago stood at 6-6-1 on the edge of not even qualifying for the state playoffs.

"We've been playing a lot better," said Ridgewood head coach Jeff Yearing, stating the obvious. "Our chemistry is coming together real well and the kids are really starting to find their combinations. I know we can play with anybody, so for us to beat (a team like Kearny), its very gratifying for the girls, but it's something that we're building toward and we're getting better as we continue on through the season."

Ridgewood got the only goal of the match from senior captain Katie Wolfson at the 14:57 mark of the second half. Meredith Harris found Wolfson about 10 yards in front of the Kardinal goal.

Wolfson, with a defender on her back, turned quickly toward the goal, leaving the defender on her outside and got a one-touch shot off to the far post, a hard ground ball that found the back of the side netting on the far post.

The Maroons used a conservative defensive approach and outstanding play in goal by Trisha McGowan to hold off the hard-charging Kardinals (19-1).

"Kearny came out in the first ten minutes of the second half and rallied pretty hard and pushed some numbers up, and we sustained it," said Yearing. "We weren't playing a lot of high pressure in the midfield, because we knew that with their technical ability and speed, if they got by us we'd be leaving numbers back and they'd be down us in a hurry.

"We were getting back early and kind of conceding the midfield to them a little bit. We were able to hold them off the top of the box, and we would counter through our midfield and move the ball out to our flanks and that seemed to work for us."

Early in the second half, McGowan tipped a shot over the net that was ticketed for the upper corner of the far post. With less than two minutes remaining in regulation, Kearny had a corner kick that bounced around in front of the Ridgewood goal resulting in a mad scramble.

A Kardinal player got off a hard low shot headed for the near post that McGowan somehow knocked down. The ball briefly squirted free but the Maroon goalkeeper was able to pull it back in and keep the Kardinals from knocking it in.

The Maroons will now face Clifton for the second time this year, and the Mustangs will be out for revenge. The Mustangs defeated Vernon, 4-2, Tuesday to advance. The game is slated for Thursday at 2 p.m. in Clifton.

As far as Yearing is concerned, whatever the Maroons do from this point on is icing on the cake. Ridgewood will return almost its entire squad next year and the coach is already looking ahead.

"The nice thing is that a lot of these kids are building toward next year, but they're also working toward some positive conclusions this year," Yearing said. "Things are starting to fall into place. We knew it would take a while to get the chemistry in place with this team and that's starting to click now."