Monday, October 17, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Jen Andresen scored in the 30th minute to give Ramapo the lead for good on the way to a 3-0 win over Pascack Valley in the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals on Sunday.

OAKLAND – Because the first game of Sunday's Bergen County Girls Soccer Tournament quarterfinal quadruple header ran long and because Ramapo was playing in Game 2, the Green Raiders had the opportunity to watch as top-seeded Northern Highlands barely avoided an upset against a Mahwah team playing with nothing to lose. It was an eye-opener and Ramapo was not interested in repeating the drama.

Playing with efficiency and precision, Ramapo had little trouble finding its way into the semifinals with a clinical 3-0 win over No. 7 Pascack Valley at Indian Hills High School. The win put the Raiders into next weekend's Final 4 against third-seeded and four-time defending champion IHA, a 3-1 winner over No. 4 Paramus.

“It was a workman-like performance and I will take it. The goal in this tournament is to win and move on and that is all it is ever about,” said Ramapo head coach Paul Heenehan. “We stayed focused, we played the entire game focused. We have been struggling with mental lapses and we didn't have any of them today.”

While Ramapo had the better of play for the first 29 minutes it did not have a lead. Pascack Valley is an organized side with a defense that gave some ground, but was able to keep the Green Raiders out of dangerous spots on the field and counter attack with some effectiveness.

Senior Ilexa Halperin was outstanding in net for Pascack Valley.

But you could almost feel that first goal coming as Ramapo played balls along the ground while probing for the right angle of attack. It was getting close in the 27th minute as freshman Kasey Finn sent Jamie Barna up the left side with Pascack Valley keeper Ilexa Halperin sprinting off her line. Barna tried to chip the goalie, but the ball floated over the crossbar. It was from that same flank that Jen Andresen exploited to put Ramapo in front for good. With possession, Andresen accelerated past two defenders and, with Halperin trying to cut the angle, tapped one into the empty net for the lone goal of the first half.

“I just remember getting the ball and going as fast as I could to goal. I knew we would get one eventually, so I figured that was a good time for it,” said Andresen, a junior who has already committed to play at Rutgers. “There have been games in the past when we have been 0-0 the whole game and we just knew we didn't want that to happen. We saw what happened with Highlands and we just needed to get one [goal] right off the bat.”

Ramapo continued to win the possession game through the rest of the first half and into the second when Andresen was denied a second goal when Halperin, who held her own on a busy day, punched her shot wide left with a lunge in the 47th minute. Pascack Valley had it two best scoring chances of the game while still trailing by just a single goal, but Ramapo keeper Ally Gilard picked off a corner kick and the Indians' best chance through the flow of play finished just short of completion. In the 55th minute Rachel Kearney won the end line on the left and centered the ball for Katya Kaplow, who flicked it through to the back post, but there was no runner there to pound it home.

Jamie Barna watching the flight of her shot that turned into Ramapo's third goal.

In the next four minutes, Ramapo had three more chances to break the game open. Freshman Carson Cochran saw her first touch from the middle of the field and 25 yard out flew high of the bar; Devan Schulte delivered a line drive service that Amanda Baumgarten got a foot to a the back post only to see it knocked by PV's Kelsey Witt and Noelle Trattou set up Andresen for a shot that missed just wide right.

It wasn't until there was 5:37 left showing on the scoreboard clock that Ramapo was able to find some insurance when Trattou found some space in the slot and took her time before picking the top right to give Ramapo a 2-0 lead. Thirty seconds later, Barna found her self free up the right and stopped 20 yards from goal. From there she lofted a shot across the goal and into the upper left to provide the winning margin.

Although it looked like a ho-hum victory, it was more than that for Ramapo, which is now two wins away from its first county title since 2003 and the 13th in program history. The seven years Ramapo has gone without winning a county championship is its longest stretch without a title since the tournament began in 1981.

Noelle Trattou and Ramapo will play 4-time defending champion IHA in the semifinals.

“I love counties, I even wrote about it [in the Varsity Life on NorthJerseySports.com]. It is so different from states because you are playing against girls that you know and it is such a great atmosphere coming here with the four [quarterfinal] games in a row,” said Schulte, one of seven seniors on the Ramapo roster. “It's such great competition and watching that game before us got us so hyped seeing that close game with Northern Highlands. Being a senior, this is the last hu-rah for us.”

Ramapo has come a long way since losing to Northern Highlands, 6-2, on September 22 and it has not lost since. The Green Raiders have put in the work and are hoping for the rewards.

“I am just very pleased with the overall effort of everybody and what we have been working on in practice is starting to show on the field, which is what I have hoped for,” said Heenehan. “I am very proud of what we did today because we did it against a very, very good team.”

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