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Monday,
October 26, 2009
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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| Kristin
Heaney tied a career high with five goals as defending champion
Northern Highlands held off Old Tappan, 7-4, in the semifinals
of the Bergen County Tournament. |
ALLENDALE
– Northern Highlands’ Kristin Heaney and Kirsten Savage
of Northern Valley/Old Tappan know each other all too well. Over
the past three years, they have battled numerous times and emerged
this season as the top two scorers in Bergen County. Since Northern
Valley/Old Tappan did not qualify for the state tournament and
Heaney is a senior this year, Sunday’s Bergen County Tournament
semifinal would be the last time these two standout players would
go head-to-head. With that and a berth in the county final on
the line, the two put on a show.
Savage netted a career-high
four goals in the game, but she was not the game’s high
goal scorer. Heaney tied a career-high with five goals, three
of those in the first half, as top-seeded and defending Bergen
County champion Northern Highlands moved onto the county final
with a wild 7-4 victory at Northern Highlands High School.
“I can’t
say I’ve ever been in such a high-scoring game,” said
Northern Highlands head coach Rich Smith. “Both Kristin
(Heaney) and Kirsten (Savage) are top-notch players and they both
were unstoppable today.”
Northern Highlands
grabbed a 1-0 lead when Brianna Dunn scored off of a scramble
in front of the cage. From then on, Heaney and Savage played a
game of ‘Can you top this?’ Twice, Heaney scored off
feeds from Ashley Flynne to push the lead up to 3-0. It looked
the game was out of reach, but Savage stepped up and a wild final
seven minutes of the first half ensued.
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| Kirsten
Savage had four goals to lead the Old Tappan comeback. |
Savage
beat a defender along the end line and snuck a shot short-side
to get Old Tappan on the scoreboard. Heaney capped the hat trick
minutes later, but Savage answered right back to trim the Highlanders’
lead to 4-2 at the half.
“We
got some momentum going into halftime, we just had a big deficit
to overcome,” said Northern Valley/Old Tappan head coach
Katie Fritz. “I loved how we kept fighting when we were
down three goals and made a game of it. Even though we tried hard,
it was too much ground to make up. Northern Highlands is an excellent
team that will make you pay for your mistakes.”
The 10-minute halftime
intermission did little to slow down either Heaney or Savage.
Less than three minutes into the second half, Heaney’s hard
shot found the back of the cage. Once again, Savage answered quickly
with her third goal to make it 5-3.
The Golden Knights
never got any closer as Heaney marked a career-best by drilling
home her fifth goal of the game. Caroline Marotta tacked on another
to put the game on ice for Northern Highlands before Savage capped
the scoring with her fourth goal of the game late.
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| Caroline
Marrotta added the last goal for Highlands, which will play
Ramsey in the county final. |
“This
was a really crazy game, I’ve never been in one with so
many goals,” said Kristin Heaney, who will continue her
career at Division 1 Lafayette College next fall. “I give
my teammates all the credit for drawing the defense and giving
me good passes. They put me in a good position to score and I
had a few shots go in.”
Heaney’s second
five-goal game of the season gave her a North Jersey-leading 28
on the season for Northern Highlands (11-6).
Jessica Yurkin and
Brittany Berg each had assists for Northern Valley/Old Tappan
(4-9-3). Savage was as efficient shooting the ball as it comes,
taking and scoring on all four of her team’s shots. Heading
into next week’s Bergen County Final against Ramsey, who
they have played twice in the past two weeks with each team winning
once, Highlander head coach Rich Smith knows he will need more
than just a great performance by Heaney to remain county champs.
“We did our job
offensively, but when the other team scores four goals on four
shots, we have some things to work on,” said Smith. “Ramsey
is a tough team and we need a total team effort. Unless we plan
on trying to win games by scores of 7-4 or 12-10, we need to be
much tighter defensively. I’m just glad we got through this
one. I’m sure for a field hockey fan this was a fun one
to watch.”
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