Thursday, September 25, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Danielle Allan added an insurance goal just before halftiome, which won its fifth straight game, 2-1, over N/V Demarest.

POMPTON LAKES – Head coach Eileen Allan has been pleased with her Pompton Lakes squad’s offensive firepower, especially of late. Over their past four games, all victories, the Cardinals have outscored their opponents by a whopping 18-3 margin. However, Allan felt the most important stretch of the season will over the next two weeks, starting yesterday against Northern Valley/Demarest, the reigning North 1, Group 3 champ.

They faced a stern test in the Norsewomen’s stingy back line. To get past it, the Pompton offense had to go back to what has made it one of North Jersey’s most successful programs over the past two decades, especially this season. The Cardinals simply attack the cage.

Sam Landwehr and Danielle Allan scored in a 5:29 span late in the first half. The defense took over from there, not allowing a single shot on net in the second half to boost Pompton Lakes to its fifth straight win, 2-0, over Northern Valley/Demarest at Herschfield Park.

Demarest keeper Courtney Ayana making one of her 8 saves.

“Demarest always goes to the ball hard, and I don’t think we were ready for that early in the game,” said Eileen Allan. “Demarest is well-coached and they never quit on a ball. We had to match their intensity and start winning the possession battle.”

Defense was the name of the game with neither team mounting much of an attack over the first 15 minutes of the contest. That was when Pompton Lakes’ senior captains Kate Ettinger and Janelle Schneider became more aggressive in the back and the rest of their teammates followed suit.

Off a rebound of a shot by Allan, Landwehr was sitting far post and tucked it in with 12:07 to play in the half, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. All of her teammates celebrated and hi-fived her for putting it in the back of the cage; except Landwehr was unaware that she even scored.

“I just poked at it and I thought it hit outside the post,” said Landwehr. “It was a scramble in front of the net and I just tried to get a stick on it. I thought it went wide, but I guess it went in. Good things happened for us when we started being more aggressive with our rushes towards the net.”

Less than six minutes later, a similar scenario happened when Landwehr’s blast from the top of the circle hit the post. Danielle Allan found her way through a crowd of players in front of the net to get a shot past Demarest goalie Courtney Anaya to make it 2-0.

Janelle Schneider played well defensively for Pompton and was also effective in starting the counter-attack.

The Norsewomen bounced right back and had several chances over the final three minutes of the half. They had four short corners, and a pair of point-blank chances from Gaby Holzer and Mary Frankivilla with 30 seconds left. Both were saves by Cardinals’ keeper Amy Cahill and Pompton Lakes escaped the late flurry to have a two-goal lead at the half.

“Punching one in there would have really given us some momentum going into the second half,” said Northern Valley/Demarest head coach Jessica Alcorta. “Pompton Lakes is a great program and they have a lot of skilled players who are going to keep coming at you. When you get scoring chances against them, you have to take full advantage of them.”

The second half was largely controlled by Pompton Lakes, which did so by consistently winning possession in the midfield. Demarest had one last chance to get on the scoreboard with four minutes to play when a long shot hit the post, but was cleared away.

Pompton Lakes (5-1) outshot the Norsewomen, 10-3, but Northern Valley/Demarest (2-3-1) held an 8-3 advantage in corners.

Mary Frankivilla generated one of Demarest's best scoring chances.

“We had our chances, we just didn’t get enough shots off to get a rally going,” added Alcorta. “We lost a lot from last year’s team, but we have stepped it up lately. We’ve been competitive against the top teams, including a tie against Montclair. Right now we’re ahead of schedule and there is still plenty of time to improve before the county and state tournaments.”

Pompton Lakes will look for its sixth straight victory tomorrow when they face Demarest’s sister school, Northern Valley/Old Tappan. They also will face Northern Highlands, Montclair, and Wayne Hills over the next two weeks; which will provide a nice measuring stick on exactly how good this team is and if there are any championships in the Cardinals’ future.

“This is a nice start for us in the heart of our schedule,” added Eileen Allan. “We started a little slow today. I had to call timeout in the first half because we weren’t staying low and it was hurting us. Once we got back doing the fundamentals correctly, we were fine. It doesn’t get any easier over the next few weeks, but it’s nice because we have to come ready to play each and every game, which is what we need to get better.”

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