Looking back a couple of weeks ago, it was heartbreaking as the Montclair girls soccer season came to an abrupt end.
The fifth-seeded Mounties fell 20-9 at top-seeded Ridgewood in the North Group 4 state sectional semifinal. Montclair finished with a 9-10 record and reached the Essex County Tournament finals.
But now in hindsight Montclair can take some solace in that they lost to the best team in Group 4 and possibly the top team in New Jersey.
Despite the lopsided score against Ridgewood, Montclair actually was ahead 5-4 with a little more than five minutes left in the first half.
“We just played our game,” Montclair girls lacrosse head coach Kim Kolodny said about the fast start against Ridgewood. “We worked hard and moved the ball well on offense. We were patient and looking for the best option. Defensively we played strong and hard. Ridgewood is a very athletic and talented team but we did our best to step up and give them a challenge when getting to the cage.”
The Maroons would go on to win the Group 4 state title in defeating Kingsway last week. Without a State Tournament of Champions this week, Ridgewood can be considered one of the top teams in the state.
The Mounties can take home with them the accomplishment that they were one of the few teams in the state playoffs to have had a lead over Ridgewood.
In the early part of the contest against the Maroons, sophomore Olivia Nicoll had three goals while sophomore Aven Hodgson and senior Meghan Crane had a goal each.
But after that, the Maroons took over against Montclair and scored six unanswered goals in the remaining portion of the first half to put the Mounties behind the eight-ball with a 10-5 deficit at intermission.
Kolodny talked about what was said at halftime after Ridgewood regained the lead in the final minutes of the first half.
“We told them to play all out and to clean up the little things,” Kolodny said. “We told them to continue to challenge each other and their opponent. Teams go on runs and a team like Ridgewood, once they click, they’re hard to slow down. We just wanted our girls to keep having fun regardless of the score. We wanted them to be able to leave it all out on the field.”
In the second half, Montclair played well in the faceoff circle with junior Hannah Saraisky and junior Lizzy Giordano, who were a great one-two combination. The Mounties won almost all the draws.
Unfortunately, Montclair could not get by the Ridgewood defense to capitalize on winning at the faceoff circle. And Maroons goalie Morgan McGahan would shut down the Mounties offense.
Nicoll led Montclair in scoring with three goals. Crane and Hodgson added a pair of goals for the Mounties. The Ridgewood defense did a good job on Montclair’s leading scorer, Giordano, who was limited to one goal.
And the Mounties did not match Ridgewood’s top scorer, Lindsey Devir, who sliced through the Montclair defense with a game-high seven goals.
The Mounties never fully recovered in the second half. Montclair senior Megan Previdi scored her lone goal of the game to slice the Ridgewood lead to 14-8 with 13 minutes remaining in the contest.
But the Mounties could not build on it as the Maroons blitz went into full force the rest of the way.
Montclair would see Ridgewood score six straight goals in the next eight minutes, ending the Mounties season.
Crane would score her second goal of the match to end the scoring with 90 seconds remaining in the contest.