JANUARY 15, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood High School gets much better odds playing the numbers 1-13-16 on the ice than in Powerball.
Those digits represent the date of the Maroons’ latest Bergen County hockey tournament victory, a 5-1 decision over Paramus/Lyndhurst/Hackensack Wednesday at the Ice Vault in Wayne.
The date of Ridgewood’s last prior county win? Jan. 16, 2013 (1-16-13) over Mahwah in the opening round. The team dropped its 2014 opener to Tenafly and did not qualify in 2015 following a slow start to the season.
This year’s first-round triumph gives the No. 8-seed Maroons a quarterfinal match-up with No. 2 St. Joseph tonight at the Ice Vault. RHS defeated the Green Knights to reach the 2012 semifinals, its furthest advancement in the tourney’s five-season history.
Senior Cooper Telesco led the offense against No. 9 Paramus/Lyndhurst/Hackensack (7-4-1) with two goals and one assist. He was one of four different Maroons to light the lamp in the third period, along with Ryan Carius, Liam Seston and Justin Klatsky.
Klatsky, Matt Cafarella, J.P. Kelly and Tim Anzano added an assist apiece, and goalie David Woodford made 26 saves as RHS moved to 9-3-1.
The win was welcomed after the Maroons sustained their first loss of the calendar year last Saturday, 6-2 against Big North Patriot foe River Dell/Westwood.
Ridgewood began 2016 by topping Clifton, 10-3 on Jan. 2, and RD/Westwood, 8-2 on Jan. 3. After splitting the season series with the latter, the team was 5-1 in the division, good for first place over the Golden Hawks (3-1-1).
