Monday, April 28, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Lina Batarags scored 19 seconds into the second OT to finally give No. Highlands the lead for good in a 17-15 win over Glen Rock in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tourney.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Katie Haarmann has been the Glen Rock head girls lacrosse coach since the team made the jump to varsity competition in 2005. She took over when the current senior class were a bunch of freshmen and now in its fourth year of existence, Glen Rock was looking for that one signature win in a tournament setting.

And boy did the Lady Panthers come close on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament. They led by three goals midway through the first half, had a one-goal lead at halftime and were tied both at the end of regulation and after the first overtime before falling to fourth-seeded Northern Highlands, 17-15, in two overtimes played on the FieldTurf at IHA.

“I feel like our county game are always like this…heartbreakers,” said Haarmann, whose team lost to IHA by a single goal in last year’s quarterfinal round. “Highlands is a tough team, they have been around a long time and I thought we did as well as we could do. Any better and we would have had a big win.”

Nicole Bender made 12 saves for Glen Rock, which played well from start to finish.

As it turned out, Glen Rock’s last-ditch shot that was right at Highlands keeper Christina Holmes with the game tied at 15 at the end of the first overtime was the Panthers final shot at the upset.

Northern Highlands’ Morgan Cocherl set up Lina Batarags for the go-ahead goal 19 seconds into the second OT and it stood up as the game winner. Had the two teams still been tied at the end of the second three-minute extra session, they would have moved on to one final OT where the first goal would have decided the outcome.

“The main thing was that I just didn’t want to go into sudden death. We had an overtime loss against Ramapo two days ago and I just didn’t want to do that again,” said Batarags, who chose the 5-hole for the game-winner. “I just kind wove in a little and shot it between the goalie’s legs. I guess I got a little bit lucky.”

The Highlanders opened a two-goal spread with 2:01 to go in the second overtime on a Meredith Savatsky goal and Holmes made four key saves in the final 1:34 to preserve the Highlanders’ win and their place in next Sunday’s semifinal round where they will take on top-seeded and defending champion Ridgewood.

Christina Holmes (right) made 22 saves, including 4 in the final 1:44 of the second OT to preserve the win for Northern Highlands.

Holmes made 22 saves in the game and was rock solid down the stretch as fourth-seeded Highlands survived a legitimate scare and improved to 6-6 on the season.

“We had just recently lost in overtime to Ramapo and that was a tough loss for us. I just really wanted it for our team to get back that energy of winning a close game and doing it in overtime,” said Holmes. “Two of those saves that I made [late in the second OT] were good saves, but the other two just hit me. I was really impressed with Glen Rock. They put a lot of pressure on us, so this was a really good win.”

Highlands tied the game at 7 when Evan O’Neill picked up a loose ball and drove it to the goal just 15 seconds into the second half, but Glen Rock got back-to-back goals from Charlotte Suozzi and Sam Litt to go up 9-7 with 22:17 left in regulation.

The Highlanders evened the game on goals from Aubrey Rubino and O’Neill and then went ahead 10-9 Cocherl scooped up the groundball off the ensuing draw and scoring with 16:10 left in the second half. From there, things only got tighter as the game was tied at 11, 12, 13 and 14 before it moved into overtime.

Jamie Marino making a run at the goal for Glen Rock.

Savatsky scored 30 seconds into the first overtime, but Glen Rock had the answer when Julie Hook was fouled then netted her second goal of the game on the restart to tie the game at 15 with 1:52 left in the first OT and, after winning the next draw, the Panthers held possession for the better part of the next minute.

Glen Rock ran the clock down to just under 30 seconds before starting their attack, and Jaime Marino drew a foul with 26 seconds left, but her path to the goal on the restart was cutoff and the Panthers had to settle for Klil Babin’s fade away shot that was saved by Holmes and the first overtime expired.

Batarags scored early in the second overtime to give Highlands the lead for good. Savatsky led all scorers with seven goals, O’Neill had 5 for the Highlanders, Batarags had 2 and Ashley Flynne joined Cocherl and Rubino with one apiece. Sam Litt led Glen Rock with 5 goals, while Marino, Hook, Suozzi and Meg Callanan each had 2. Babin and Tuozzi each had a goal apiece for Glen Rock, which fell to 4-7 with the loss.

“I do feel like we are not at the point where we feel like we should win every time we take the field. I believe that, but I am trying to convince my team of that and it is not easy because we are so young,” said Highlands head coach Tracey Costello. “Today we at the end of the game we had a freshman [Tina Weiss] on the field who was carrying the ball and it was only her second varsity game. It was her first time in that type of position and we have that with a lot of our players this year. We are very talented and the girls know that, but we need a lot of encouragement because sometimes we lose a little bit of confidence in close games. That why today’s win was so important because it was close and it was against a good team that gave us all they had.”

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