Monday, April 28, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Jackie Boswick scored 15 seconds into the second overtime to give Ramapo the goal it needed to hold off Holy Angels, 15-14, in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County tournament.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Sooner or later it was expected that Holy Angels would finally give in. Matched against third-seeded Ramapo in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Girls Lacrosse Tournament on Sunday at IHA, the sixth-seeded Angels had already made their point.

Holy Angels, a program in just its third season of varsity play, led by as many as three goals in the first half, were tied at halftime and, after falling behind three goals midway through the second half, forced overtime and was as close as could possibly be to pulling off a stunning upset as the clock whittled down in the first extra session.

“It’s the best game that we have played all year by far and we were right there,” said Holy Angels head coach Anne Coomber, a former Ridgewood standout who was also a four-year starter at Colgate. “We played a great game. We are a relatively new program and we hung with a great, established program and we just needed one more break to get the win. We were that close.”

Junior Amy Oakely made 27 saves to keep AHA in the game until the bitter end.

It took an Ana Drehwing goal with 16 seconds left in the first overtime for Ramapo to get back even, and a little luck for the Green Raiders to extend the game further. With five seconds left in the first overtime, AHA’s Kate Russo got off a shot from the slot that got behind Ramapo goaltender Shannon Brady only to careen off the left post and roll back in front. Christie Fredericks got of a last second shot on the rebound that was low and on target with :01 showing on the clock, but Brody came up with the huge save to push the game into a second overtime.

And when Jackie Boswick scored 15 seconds into the second OT, Ramapo was finally able to make it stand up. The Green Raiders, who outshot Holy Angels 39-28 in the game, escaped with a 15-14 win and advanced to next weekend’s semifinals where they will take on No. 3 IHA, an 11-1 winner over No. 6 Pascack Valley on Sunday.

“It’s a good lesson for us that we can’t take any team lightly. It’s anyone’s game every time we go out there,” said Drehwing, who led Ramapo with five goals. “They worked so hard and I don’t think we expected it. They are a great team, they are a really athletic team and they have some really good players. I don’t think we played our best game today, but a lot of that was because they played so well.”

Ana Drehwing scored 5 goals to lead Ramapo into next weekend's Bergen County Tournament semifinals.

Erin Mack scored the game’s first goal to serve notice that Holy Angels had come to play and it took a 6-3 lead with 8:06 left in the first half when Christina Connell scored off a feed from Kaitlin Saar.

With confidence and with the way Amy Oakely was playing in net, Holy Angels had plenty going for it early before Ramapo, which has not lost to a Bergen County team this season, could get going. Oakely made 12 first half saves, many of them of the difficult variety, but Ramapo was able to string together four straight goals by Erinn Hogan, Boswick, Drehwing and Maria Toscano to forge a 7-6 lead. Ali Chevestick’s goal off a restart got AHA back even heading into halftime.

“At this point and after coaching for so long, I don’t take anyone for granted,” said Ramapo head coach Pat Jackson. “No excuses from our end, Holy Angels is an athletic team that can really go to the cage and their goalie is an intimidated presence who had a career game today. When you are only allowed limited defense and you run into a hot goalie, a game like today is exactly what you are going to get. I am proud of my girls that they fought through and got a win.”

Christie Fredericks scored 5 goals for Holy Angels, which fell to 7-3 with the loss.

It looked like Ramapo had finally wrested control with it scored the first four goals of the second half, the last two by Drehwing, to take an 11-7 lead and the Green Raiders were still up by three goals at 13-10 when freshman Nicole Kincaid spun and fired one home from in front.

Despite Ramapo’s overwhelming advantage in ball possession, Oakely’s 27 saves and AHA’s ability to take advantage of just about every offensive opportunity it had in the second half brought the Angels back. They scored the final three goals of regulation, the last of which came from Christie Fredericks sliced through to tie the game at 13 with 1:34 left in the second half.

The Angels had the first lead of the first overtime when Kate Russo made a full-field run from behind her own net and into the Ramapo crease, from where she scored at point-blank range with just over one minute to go. Ramapo won the ensuing draw and maintained possession until Drehwing could put home the tying goal with 16 seconds left.

AHA had the final possession and it led to the shot that hit the post and Brody’s clutch save. Brody, playing in place of Ramapo’s everyday keeper Kerry Clark, one of the state’s best, made 14 saves for the Green Raiders although she found the going easier in the second OT.

Shannon Brody made a clutch save at the end of the first overtime to keep Ramapo alive.

Boswick scored 15 seconds in to give Ramapo the lead for good, the Green Raiders won the next draw and held the ball until there were just 30 second left and AHA’s last shot, a hurried try from deep by Fredericks, was knocked down in front.

“The ball hit the ground off the draw and I just picked it up and went towards the goal,” said Boswick, speaking of the game-winner. “I was going to go into ‘X’, which is the play we were going to run, but the girl played me to the side I was trying to go to, so I just switched hands and it was a free shot at the goal.”

Fredericks led Holy Angels (7-3) with 5 goals, Mack had 4, Russo had 3 and Chevestick and Connell split the other two for the Angels. Drehwing's 5 goals led Ramapo and Boswick added 4 goals. Toscano, Kincaid, Erinn Hogan, Jen Ramsden, Colleen Steel and Shannon Larson each had a goal apiece for the Raiders, who will have their hands full next week against IHA in the semifinals. IHA handled Ramapo when the two teams met up in a preseason scrimmage.

“If I had to make a prediction, I would say that the team that wins 60-percent of the draws is going to win that game. I don’t see that game being a 6-4 game, I see it being a 14-13 game and the team that gets more possessions wins. Conditioning is going to be a huge factor,” said Jackson, whose team reached the county final last season before losing to Ridgewood. “That is a dead-even game and my kids know that if they have a less-than-perfect performance we are going to walk off the field as losers and we don’t want that.”

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