Friday,
November 13, 2009
By
Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Eilis
McGovern (left), Val Sydnor (8) and Melissa Fichera, teammates
since they were seven-year olds, each scored a goal in Northern
Highlands' 3-2 win over upstart Paramus in the North 1,
Group 3 state sectional final on Thursday afternoon.
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ALLENDALE
– The Northern Highlands girls soccer team had not given
up more then one goal in a game all season and has never trailed.
The lone loss on the Highlanders' record came on a golden goal
in overtime in the Bergen County Tournament final and had just
held archrival Ramapo scoreless through 100 minutes before winning
in a shootout in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinal.
So you can imagine the Highlanders' surprise when they gave up
their usual quota of goals and fell behind all at once less than
two minutes into Thursday's state section final against a Paramus
team that clearly came ready to play.
Dean A. Moore Stadium
was rocking as Northern Highlands High School let out early to
allow the entire student body and staff to watch the action. There
was a pregame buzz as the stands filled in to a total of somewhere
near 1,500 people, but Lannigan made it awfully quiet when she
chipped the goalie in the second minute.
“I’ll give
it to Paramus. They let their excitement overcome their nervousness
and they put one away early,” said Northern Highlands head
coach Tara Madigan. “I was just hoping that our kids would
come back and score an equalizer before halftime.”
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| Megan
Lannigan scored inside the first two minutes to give Paramus
the first of its two first half leads. |
Actually,
Highlands scored two equalizers before halftime, erasing 1-0 and
2-1 deficits, and then got a goal from Val Sydnor with just over
four minutes left in regulation to give Northern Highlands a 3-2
win and its first
state sectional championship since 2003, Madigan’s first
year at the helm.
The
first 74 minutes of the game were just about an even split as
Paramus was able to work the flanks against Highlands’ stout
defense, while the Highlanders used their more deliberate approach
to work the ball through the center of the field to build their
attacks. But with about six minutes to go, Highlands started to
press the action, locking the Spartans in their defensive third
and pressuring the net.
The
pressure led to a throw-in from the left sideline just in midfield
and Sydnor’s goal followed soon after. Sam Fiorenzo knocked
Tara Corbett’s throw-in forward and Sydnor made an aggressive
play, going in hard against two defenders and getting a cleat
up to advance the ball. Sydnor then had the angle and followed
her first touch as Paramus keeper Alex Garey raced off her line.
Sydnor got there first and used her left foot to pooch the ball
over Garey and into the net for the game-winner.
“I was playing
on the right side and I saw chaos happening on the left side,
so I sprinted over to help out. It was kind of a loose ball. I
got a touch on it and I saw the goalie was kind of out of the
goal and I could chip it,” said Sydnor, a junior. “I
just did my best to get there and it went in.”
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| Junior
keeper Caroline Broder was sold again in net for Northern
Highlands. |
It
was an exciting finish, but the rest of the game wasn’t
too shabby, either. Lannigan fired the first shot and Paramus,
making its first ever trip to the section final, never backed
down even after Northern Highlands seemed to regain momentum when
it scored in the 10th minute to tie the game.
Melissa
Fichera crashed the near post off a ball that was bouncing around
in the box and got Highlands even when she used the outside of
her right foot to push the ball across the goal and in to make
it 1-1. Undeterred, Paramus went back in front in the 22nd minute
and did so with speed.
On a counterattack,
Jenny Zymet blew by a defender just inside midfield and made a
run up the right side. Zymet got deep then served in the perfect
ball for freshman Sarah Cortes, who popped her first touch over
a sliding Caroline Broder and into the net to put Paramus up 2-1.
“It
was a unique situation. We haven’t been down in the first
half and we haven’t given up more than one goal in a game
all season. My mindset was just to save the next one,” said
Broder, Highlands’ junior keeper who didn’t have a
chance on either goal allowed. “I wouldn’t say we
were surprised because we didn’t come in here with an air
of superiority. We knew Paramus was good. They have some good
players, they are a tough team and we had to keep working.”
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| Jenny
Zymet used her speed to set up Paramus's second goal. |
Paramus
was less than six minutes from carrying its second lead into halftime,
but Highlands’ caught the Spartans from behind again. Highlands
senior midfielder Alex Hubelbank and Paramus junior Kristina Meier
are two of Bergen County’s most physical players and their
battles took place up and down the field, one of them in front
of the Paramus net late in the first half.
Hubelbank
went up in a crowd to flick on a ball played in from the corner
and the ricochet travelled deeper toward the end line and the
near post where Eilis McGovern had the space to place her header
back across the crease and inside the far post. McGovern’s
goal tied the game at 2 with 5:55 left in the first half and left
40 minutes of play for all the marbles.
“We
got two leads; we just couldn’t make them stick. Northern
Highlands is the No. 1 seed for a reason, everybody knows how
good they are, but I think some people underestimated us and didn’t
expect us to play a game like this,” said Vic DePasquale,
who was making his deepest foray into the state tournament in
his 19 years as Paramus’ head coach. “And we had some
chances in the second half that we couldn’t convert.”
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| Alex
Hubelbank's physical style helped set up Northern Highlands'
second goal. |
One
of those chances came in the 55th minute when Cortes, who was
a tough mark all day even for Highlands’ organized defense,
got free up the left side and then cut back in, drawing the defense
and opening space for Lauren Fiorino, who she sent in on a diagonal.
But Broder had it read perfectly and was already near the top
of the 18 as Fiorino arrived. Broder slid and made a bang-bang
save to keep the game even.
The
game was fluid, physical and well-played with each team taking
the possession advantage for stretches, but it was in the final
15 minutes that Highlands started to wrest control. It finally
paid off in Sydnor’s goal and added a nice little twist
to Highlands’ season, which will continue on Tuesday against
North 2, Group 3 champion West Morris-Mendham in the Group 3 state
semifinal. Highlands’ three goal scorers – Sydnor,
McGovern and Fichera – have been teammates since starting
together on the U-7 Americans club team.
“The positive
coming out of this game is that we were down and we came back
to tie it and we went down again and came back to tie it. It’s
the first time we’ve been in that situation and it is a
good sign that we were able to handle it,” said Madigan.
“It’s a great experience to still be playing this
late in November and we hope to continue. We have a chance to
rest before Tuesday and right now we are going to enjoy this moment.”
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| The
final goal of Sarah Cortes' outstanding freshman season gave
Paramus a 2-1 lead. |
There
were plenty of moments to enjoy in this season for Paramus as
well. In addition to making the longest run in the state playoff
in the history of their girls soccer program, the Spartans reached
the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament. They also picked
up the kind of big game experience that can only help down the
road as they will return a host of talented players in 2010.
The
loss off Zymet will hurt when she graduates in June, but she is
one of just four seniors on the roster. Cortes has emerged as
one of the top offensive threats in North Jersey in just her freshman
season; Lannigan, Meier, Stephanie Hallihan, Ashley Roessler,
Shayna Brock and Tori Feorenzo make up the core of a deep junior
class and sweeper Noelle Mattesich and Fiorino were solid contributors
in their sophomore seasons.
“It’s
not just Sarah Cortes, who played great today, but Megan Lannigan
comes out and scores inside two minutes. She didn’t make
all-county, but she showed that she can score against a team full
of all-county players. Meier had a great game in the middle knocking
everything out and they will all be back,” said DePasquale.
“We played awesome today, we just fell one notch short.
A great effort, just a little bit short.”
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