MAY 29, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Mia Barbera has fond memories of the last time Ridgewood High School won a state-sectional softball title. Even fresher in her mind is the way the Maroons’ most recent playoff runs have ended.
The junior shortstop singled and scored in the first inning of Tuesday’s North 1, Group 4 semifinal at Veterans Field. That, plus the hitting of Emilie Morse, the two-hit pitching of Lisa Higgins and some airtight defense, propelled No. 1 seed RHS past No. 4 Livingston, 1-0, and into its first sectional final since 2009.
Weather permitting, Ridgewood (24-4) will host No. 2 Morris Knolls (24-6) in the title game today at 2 p.m. The Golden Eagles have eliminated the Maroons from three of the past four postseasons, including last year in the sectional semis, 4-3.
“We’re definitely ready to beat [Morris Knolls] this year,” said Barbera. “We don’t want to lose to them again.”
RHS Athletics Holds Night for Parents of Incoming Freshmen Athletes
Parents and guardians of incoming freshmen athletes are invited to a meeting on Thursday, June 4. RHS Director of Athletics Keith Cook will give a brief overview of high school athletics and all fall coaches will be on hand to answer any questions. The meeting will take place from 7-8 p.m. in Gym I at RHS. For more information, please contact Keith Cook (201-670-2800, ext. 20510 or [email protected]).
Concussion Awareness Program is June 1
Parents and guardians are invited to a special program on the topic of concussions in youth sports. RHS Head Athletic Trainer Nick Nicholaides and Gerard Gioia, Division Chief of Neuropsychology and Director of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education Program at Children’s National Health System, will be presenting information at Benjamin Franklin Middle School Auditorium on Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m.Click here for more information.
RIDGEWOOD BOE MEETS ON JUNE 1, 2015
The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, June 1, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.
Click here to view the agenda for the June 1, 2015 Regular Public Meeting.
By Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on May 26, 2015 11:20 AM
School districts from Summit, West Essex Regional and Southern Regional — districts with well-established reputations for athletic excellence at the high school level — have been ranked the best in New Jersey and among the most highly rated in the nation, according to a study based on athletic statistics and hundreds of thousands of surveys.
Summit also checked in at No. 3 overall nationally, with West Essex (No. 21) and Southern Regional (No. 28) cracking the top 30 in America.
The study rated school district athletics as a whole, considering parent and student opinions, number of interscholastic sports offered, percentages of girls and boys participating in sports and the average athletic expense per student, among other factors.
A school district rated high by the study generally indicates sports and fitness plays a significant role in the student life; students actively participate in intervarsity sports; and the administration is invested in the athletic program.
The study ranked 4,951 districts after fielding more than 750,000 opinions from nearly 230,000 students and parents.
Also, some school districts such as Wayne — ranked No. 16 in New Jersey — include more than one high school.
Eight schools from New Jersey landed in the top 70 nationally: Summit, West Essex, Southern, River Dell, Ridgewood, Pascack Valley, New Providence andRandolph.
WASHINGTON TWP. – For all but about three minutes during the North 2, Group 3 boys lacrosse championship at Ridgewood on Saturday evening, West Morris Central played respectable, sometimes outstanding, defense.
But playing without one of its top scorers against the seventh-ranked team that came in allowing just six goals a game, the Wolfpack needed to be nearly perfect. And allowing a goal with six seconds left in the first period and three goals over a one-minute span in the final two minutes of the second period turned out to be the tremors that triggered the avalanche in Ridgewood’s 9-0 victory.
“They kind of had a couple of flurries there,” said West Morris head coach Rob Goodwin, whose team concluded a 12-11 season after winning six of its final eight games. “We aren’t very big and I think we were a little tentative at times against their bigger players.”
Cooper Telesco was a case in point. The 6-0, 190-pound attack pretty much willed his way through two Wolfpack defenders to score three-and-a-half minutes into the game, then added a deflating goal in much the same manner with only six seconds left in the first to make it 2-0.
Still, the Wolfpack were right in it after Joe Reilly made three tough saves in a row over a one-minute span midway through the second period. West Morris trailed only 2-0 with two minutes left in the half and an underdog hanging tough can put pressure on a favorite.
But the Maroons broke through with 1:41 left, then scored 10 seconds later after winning the ensuing faceoff. They added one more goal with 36 seconds left and whatever hopes West Morris might have carried into intermission were seriously dampened after falling behind 5-0.
Making that score all the more ominous was the fact that the Wolfpack managed to get off only a couple of shots on goal the entire half. Twice, Cooper Sloan made a nifty move around the right post and tried to quickly scoop an underhand by Ridgewood goalie Chris Cerrina.
Ridgewood NJ, Parents and guardians are invited to a special program on the topic of concussions in youth sports. RHS Head Athletic Trainer Nick Nicholedes and Gerard Gioia, Division Chief of Neuropsychology and Director of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education Program at Children’s National Health System, will be presenting information at Benjamin Franklin Middle School Auditorium on Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m.Click here for more information.
MAY 10, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2015, 1:07 AM
BY JJ CONRAD
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
MAHWAH — The soon-to-be Ridgewood graduates, like Jordan Ford and Reid Simoncini, stood and posed for pictures with the trophy, just as the previous 10 senior classes had done before them.
The Maroons’ girls lacrosse team had just carried on an unprecedented dynasty, as Ridgewood captured its 11th straight Bergen County title with a near-flawless 16-2 win over previously unbeaten Northern Highlands (19-1) on Saturday.
Essentially everyone involved said the winning never gets old. But the experiences, they say, always differ.
Each one is special. Each one has different players in different roles.
One thing that remains constant, however, is the annual pressure to live up to the Ridgewood legacy.
“Not on your watch!” one parent shouted proudly during the seniors’ trophy photo shoot, declaring the Maroons’ run of county dominance was not going to end with the Class of 2015.
“The pressure that’s on us to keep this going makes it that much more exciting,” said Ford, the James Madison-bound middie who struck for a game-high five goals and one assist as Ridgewood (16-0) stormed out to an 11-2 halftime lead.
“I think in my mind all the time that there’s no possibility we’re going to lose. It’s a tradition we love and a tradition we want to hold on to. Losing is not an option. That’s our motto. Losing is not acceptable here.”
Ridgewood toppled New Jersey giant Moorestown to move from No. 19 to No. 7 in theSuper 25 Girls Lacrosse rankings provided by 3d Rising.
Hannah Cermack rolled the crease and scored with 27 seconds left in overtime for an 11-10 victory, ending Moorestown’s 88-game win streak. Moorestown had not lost since a 10-9 defeat against Ridgewood in the 2011 Tournament of Champions final.
Moorestown, which had been No. 3 last week and No. 2 for most of the season, fell to No. 8.
MAY 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — A win in April, no matter how big, won’t raise the expectations of the Ridgewood High School girls lacrosse team, which already has its sights set on the ultimate prize: a State Tournament of Champions title.
However, there is no denying that last Saturday’s 11-10 overtime win over perennial powerhouse Moorestown — winner of the past three TOC finals — did plenty to make that goal appear within reach.
Ridgewood sophomore Hannah Cermack delivered the game-winner from the right side with 27 seconds left in overtime to help the Maroons snap Moorestown’s 88-game winning streak.
file photo
By Richard Greco | For NJ Advance Media
on April 25, 2015 6:19 PM
Moorestown, No. 1 in the NJ.com Top 20 found itself in an early hole as it fell behind No. 2 Ridgewood, 6-2, heading into half time. The Quakers needed to make adjustments.
“We just needed to take care of the ball,” Moorestown coach Deanna Knobloch said. “We didn’t take care of the ball in the first half. I think we had 10 turnovers. If you can’t maintain possession of the ball you can’t win in this game. The whole halftime talk was to get possession, slow it down on offense and move the ball.”
Moorestown came out surging in the second half behind Alex O’Donnell, who scored a game-high four goals. O’Donnell potted three goals during a 4-0 run that allowed Moorestown to tie Ridgewood at 6-6. Moorestown had another run after Ridgewood took a 8-6 lead and scored three straight goals from O’Donnell, Abbey Brooksand Melanie Becker to grab a 9-8 lead.
Michael Thurston of Ridgewood High School Male Athlete of the Week
APRIL 21, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015, 7:00 AM
BY CHUCK O’DONNELL
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
You couldn’t blame Michael Thurston for being tired after running in three races during the Jack Yockers Bergen County Relays in Oradell.
Michael Thurston
Sport: Track Class: Junior Age: 17
Accomplishment: Thurston helped Ridgewood win two events and take second and third in two others during the Jack Yockers Bergen County Relays.
But two things managed to put a little spring back in the Ridgewood junior’s stride Saturday as he got ready to run his fourth and final event, the 4-x-400.
First, he wanted to do his best. He knew his teammates were counting on him to help them hold on to second place in the Division A standings.
Photo Courtesy of Deirdre Tobin Nine seniors lead highly ranked Ridgewood into the 2015 season. FRONT ROW, from left: Scott Ho, Harrison Feenaghty and Lucas Veca. BACK ROW, from left: Thomas Kelly, Roshaan Iqbal, Eric Park, Derek Etzrodt and Nikhil Mendiratta. Not pictured: Berfu Yildiz.
Ridgewood Tennis readies itself for season on the road
April 10, 2015 Last updated: Friday, April 10, 2015, 12:30 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
RIDGEWOOD — Not even a week into the 2015 campaign, the Ridgewood High School boys tennis team has already faced a season’s worth of challenges.
The team has been forced to relocate all its home matches to its opponents’ courts until further notice after snow removal efforts damaged two of the high school’s five courts, rendering them unplayable.
Then, after winning the team’s opener on Monday versus Paramus, the Maroons’ match with Ramapo was postponed due to rain and foreboding skies threatened the rest of the week’s slate.
“It’s been that kind of season so far,” head coach Deirdre Tobin said with a laugh Tuesday.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. Just minutes after making that statement, Ridgewood’s best player and captain, Berfu Yildiz, sprained his ankle on a team run and was expected to sit out the rest of the week, according to Tobin.
April 10, 2015 Last updated: Friday, April 10, 2015, 12:30 AM
By Ron Fox
CORRESPONDENT |
The Ridgewood News
A trip to the Cherry Valley Country Club in Montgomery on Tuesday allowed Ridgewood High School’s girls golf coach Brian Quirk a moment to think ahead.
“We’ve been on the cusp of qualifying for the state championship round and we hope to get there this year,” Quirk said once he arrived home Tuesday from the Montgomery Lady Cougar Invitational — also known as the Cherry Valley Invitational. “And since the state matches are played at Cherry Valley, it was nice to get in a round on that course.”
Familiarizing oneself with the field of battle is one thing, but now Quirk is working to align his troops for the surge that lies ahead.
The Maroons begin with their lone senior, Jessica Chang; sophomore Hyoyi Joo and junior Kiley Chmiel, all of whom stood out in the shoot-four, count-three event.
“When we count four [golfers in the scoring process], Diana Soriano, another junior, is probably the one,” he said. “She’s in the same boat as the first three. We’re looking for Diana to start to contribute regularly.”
April 3, 2015 Last updated: Friday, April 3, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
RIDGEWOOD — Its roster might look different, but the Ridgewood High School baseball team entered the opening week of the season with a familiar feeling.
The program said goodbye to the 16 seniors that led the team to 16 wins in 2014, but it welcomes back a solid core of varsity contributors as well as a promising group of players from last season’s successful JV and freshman teams, which led to renewed optimism as the Maroons got underway this week.
“Our expectations are still thinking we’re going to be a team that can get into the state playoffs and hopefully the counties, and that’s still part of our mindset,” RHS head coach Kurt Hommen said Sunday night from Vero Beach, Fla., where the Maroons enjoyed a few days of preseason training in sunny weather.
Ridgewood is coming off a solid 16-10 campaign, which included a trip to the North 1, Group 4 semifinals and a near upset of top-seeded Bergen Catholic in the county tournament.
APRIL 3, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2015, 12:30 AM
BY MARK J. CZERWINSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Westwood baseball coach Kris Izzo was hard at work building up his pitcher’s mound over the weekend, celebrating the Cardinals’ first day out on their own field this preseason. All of a sudden, he heard a noise that is usually so out of place on a baseball field.
Especially four days before opening day.
“I hear this crunch of snow,” Izzo said. “So strange. I look up, and our kids are walking in and out of the dugout through snow.”
The Cardinals were lucky. They may have some snow lingering by the dugout and behind home plate, but at least the rest of the field is clear and playable.
That puts them well ahead of a few North Jersey teams who are still waiting for some sort of thaw to set in even with Thursday’s seasonable weather. And almost everyone endured a preseason that kept them inside and off their frozen fields, setting back their preparation.
“In my 30 years as an educator, this is the worst I remember,” Demarest athletic director Greg Butler said. “We’ve had other bad Marches, but not like this. This is the worst, not because of the snow, but because it’s been so cold along with the snow.”
That’s why you have fields like the one at St. Joseph. It’s always a little colder up on that hill in Montvale, and the parts of the field along the third base line that are shielded by trees – a blessing on sunny days in the late spring – had so much snow remaining that the Green Knights had to move Thursday’s opener to Morris Catholic.
And the drains in the dugouts are frozen and layered with ice.
In Mahwah, the field was covered by a coating of snow Wednesday morning, just hours before the Thunderbirds’ first game.
Up in West Milford, where winter always seems to linger a bit longer, weekend pictures of the Highlanders’ field look like a Christmas card scene. Half the field is covered in snow, and Wednesday’s opener was moved to Wayne Valley.
“We’ve played two scrimmages on turf, but we haven’t practiced outside except for fungoes in the parking lot,” said West Milford coach Joe Jordan.
“It’s funny because the school district had drainage put in over the summer. It worked really well in the fall, but a new drainage system doesn’t make a difference when the ground is frozen and there’s nothing to drain.”
Some lucky teams such as Demarest, Ridgewood and Don Bosco were able to head off to places such as Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Florida to squeeze in some workouts and scrimmages.
RHS Girls Lacrosse: Reloaded Ridgewood poised for a deep run
March 27, 2015 Last updated: Friday, March 27, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
RIDGEWOOD —A full team’s worth of seniors, including four of last year’s top five goal scorers, left the Ridgewood High School girls lacrosse team after the Class of 2014 graduated, but the expectations of the program didn’t follow them out the door.
It’s fitting that the team chose the word “relentless” as its rallying cry for this season, as the adjective also accurately describes the regenerative nature of the Maroons program.
This year, the program welcomed 14 new girls to the varsity unit, according to assistant coach Marissa Moore, who filled in earlier this week for head coach Karla Mixon, who had to attend to a family emergency.
Armed with “ridiculous speed” all over the field, Moore is confident the Maroons are just as capable of wearing the State Tournament of Champions crown as any of the recent teams that have come up a few steps short.
“These girls are driven to get that. Our captains, especially, want that more than anything,” Moore said. “These girls circle it on their calendar, and that’s their ultimate goal.”
RHS fell just shy of its sixth straight North Group 4 title in 2014, dropping a tight 11-10 contest to Ridge of Somerset County in the sectional final.
