Saturday, September 26, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

A day after scoring a hat trick, Pompton Lakes' Danielle Allan added another tally in a 3-0 win over Northern Highlands.

POMPTON LAKES – After a hot start to the season, the Pompton Lakes field hockey team finally ran into some trouble on Thursday against West Milford. The Cardinals trailed for the first time all year before a second-half hat trick by Danielle Allan led them to victory. But another measure of just how good Pompton can be this season is how it handles adversity without any time to rest.

Less than 24 hours after passing the test against West Milford, the Cardinals welcomed the reigning Bergen County champion, Northern Highlands, to town fresh off of a tough loss to Wayne Hills.

This time, the Cardinals did not wait until the second half to take control of the game. They did not have as many scoring opportunities as they usually get over the course of a game, but they made the most of them when it counted.

Sam Landwehr, LeeAnn Foote, and Allan all found the back of the cage in the first half as Pompton Lakes improved to 6-0 with a 3-0 win.

“Northern Highlands has some quality players and we couldn’t play from behind again,” said Pompton Lakes head coach Eileen Allan. “We didn’t know what to expect from either team coming in. Our goal was to play just as hard and beat them to ball whenever we could. I think both teams were tired mentally and physically. I’m just happy we had enough energy to get the job done against a solid team.”

Northern Highlands' Kristen Heaney had scored in every game this season before Friday.

The Cardinals caught a break when Landwehr’s shot got a friendly ricochet and went in to put Pompton Lakes ahead just 6:38 into the game.

“We knew Northern Highlands was a team to beat this season and we really wanted to score first,” said Landwehr. “After we scored, they came right back, but our defense did a great job of getting the ball out of there. We are focused every single game and the potential is there to have a really great season.”

But the Highlanders began to settle in and had their best stretch of play midway through the first half. Over a two-minute stretch, they had five short corners with a legitimate chance to tie the game and forced Pompton Lakes head coach Eileen Allan to call a timeout.

Led by Kristen Foote, the Cardinal defense held its ground and allowed just one shot during that span.

“Pompton Lakes took advantage of their opportunities and we didn’t,” said Northern Highlands head coach Rich Smith. “We had several chances to tie the game there, but couldn’t get a good shot off. When you’re facing a team as talented and as well-coached as Pompton Lakes, you have to capitalize when you get corners. Outside of that 10 to 12 minute span, we did not do the little things and the fundamentals we needed to do to win this game. If you don’t execute the basics against Pompton Lakes, it’s going to be a long day.”

Sam Landwehr scored a goal and assisted on another as Pompton Lakes improved to 6-0.

Landwehr got the Cardinal offense back on track with a long run up the right side. Her cross got through traffic in front of the net, and Foote was there at the back post to knock it home to make it 2-0.

“I saw the pass coming through and I just tried to get a stick on it,” said Foote. “I think the timeout coach (Allan) called in the first half helped us calm down. Teams are going to come at us hard and they will be out to get us all year. We have to go back at them just hard and that’s what we did after the timeout.”

With just over two minutes to play in the half, Danielle Allan took a short corner from Jess Pankey and drilled a shot into the back of the cage to give Pompton Lakes a comfortable three-goal lead at the break.

The second half was controlled by the Pompton Lakes defense. The Cardinals used several players to bottle up Northern Highlands standout Kristin Heaney. Heaney had scored in every game this season coming in, but was held to just one of her team’s two shots. Kristina Markel finished with 12 saves for Northern Highlands (4-3).

Amy Cahill made two saves to earn her fourth shutout of the year for Pompton Lakes (6-0). The Cardinals will look to keep their winning ways going on Wednesday when they meet River Dell.

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