Thursday, November 5, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Jenny Tafro and Passaic Valley posted a 2-1 win over West Milford to set up a rematch with Wayne Hills in the sectional semifinals.

LITTLE FALLS – Although it beat West Milford by three goals twice in a three-day span back in October, the Passaic Valley field hockey team knew that this time would be different because this time it was the state playoffs and the loser of Wednesday’s North 1, Group 3 semifinal would see its season come to an end. With a 12-game winning streak and a county title to its credit this season, Passaic Valley could already call its season a success, but the Hornets’ eight senior starters wanted to make sure to keep it going.

Ali DiLuccia scored the game-winner with 13:12 to play and third-seeded Passaic Valley made several huge defensive plays down the stretch to hold on for a 2-1 win over sixth-seeded West Milford at Passaic Valley High School.

Passaic Valley has been the hottest team in North Jersey recently and kept its torrid play going early. Kelly Gilhooley knocked in a pass from senior Jaclyn Williams to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.

Any celebration of grabbing the lead in a state tournament game faded quickly. Less than a minute after Gilhooley’s goal, Kate Lezette collected a pass from Stacie Csakvary and put it in the back of the cage for West Milford, knotting the score at 1.

“You never want a goal to be scored on you, but that definitely made us focus a bit more,” said Passaic Valley head coach Cheryl Grande. “I told them at halftime that West Milford is an aggressive team and they came here to beat us. I think our offense has gotten a lot of press this year, but our defense is equally as deserving. Our defense really saved our butt at times in both the first and the second halves.”

The teams remained tied well into the second half, until DiLuccia changed that with one swing of the stick. A loose ball popped right in front of her near the top left corner of the box. She one-timed a shot past West Milford goaltender Erica Cochenour and into the right-hand corner of the cage which put the Hornets back in front, 2-1.

“It happened really fast and I just hit the ball as hard as I could,” said DiLuccia. “I was excited when I scored, but not that excited. I felt like we needed more goals and West Milford was going to keep playing hard. They were going to give us everything they had for those last (13) minutes and we had to be ready.”

DiLuccia’s premonition was on the mark as the Highlanders immediately went on the attack with no less than five quality chances to tie the game in the final 10 minutes.

The first came on a penalty stroke with 9:53 to play that went just inches wide of the left post. Then Passaic Valley goaltender Samantha Dilkes came well off of her line to save a breakaway shot by Halei Van Dyke. A minute later, Dilkes made a point-blank save to keep the Hornets ahead.

“After they scored early in the game, we knew that we had to make some plays to win,” said Dilkes. “I think for awhile we kept the pressure on them until we took the lead. We had to get back on defense faster than we were in the first half to keep them from scoring and we did that.”

The Highlanders kept plugging away and nearly netted the equalizer twice, only to be turned away in similar fashion. Hornets’ sweeper Rachel DeVenio blocked a shot in front and, with three minutes to go, fullback Melissa Coppa cleared a shot off the goal line as Passaic Valley held on for the hard-fought victory.

“We had our opportunities and they had to make some great plays to keep the ball out of the cage,” said West Milford head coach Jill Cullen. “It’s obviously disappointing when you lose in the state tournament. But we played them a lot closer than we did the first two times we played them, so there was improvement. We had twelve wins and that’s the most we had since I became the head coach. Our girls worked hard all year and we saw the benefits of that even though we lost today.”

Cochenour had 20 saves for West Milford (12-6). Her counterpart, Dilkes, finished with 12 for Passaic Valley (16-3), which won its 13th game in a row.

The Hornets’ next opponent will be a familiar one in the North 1, Group 3 semifinals, as the Hornets will meet second-seeded Wayne Hills. Wayne Hills, which won in penalty strokes to knock out High Point on Wednesday, beat Passaic Valley in the regular season before falling to them in the Passaic County title game, both by 2-1 scores. Wayne Hills will look to get revenge on the Hornets and defend their section title.

“Wayne Hills is always really tough, but we’re pretty tough too,” said Passaic Valley’s Melissa Coppa. “We know each other so well, it’s just going to come down to who executes and does the little things better. The game is going to be one big adrenaline rush. I’ve been playing since fifth grade and been playing their players for a long time. They have shown they can beat us and we’ve shown we can beat them. I’m sure they feel very confident, but so do we and we definitely feel we have what it takes to go all the way.”

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