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.
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.
APRIL 24, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — On a warm, sunny day, seemingly handpicked for the unofficial start of the season in the village, swarms of young athletes flocked to the 65th annual Ridgewood Baseball and Softball Association (RBSA) Opening Day festivities.
“The baseball gods, softball gods were with us today with the beautiful weather,” RBSA President Jim Albano said last Saturday, referring to the streak of poor weather the event had experienced in recent years.
The association pulled out all the stops this year, expanding the event with a 60-item tricky tray, 28 craft vendors, five food trucks and various other baseball- and softball-related activities.
“It’s a festival now, it’s not just Opening Day,” Albano said.
RBSA board member Lisa Powers, the key figure behind the so-called “grand-slam changes,” had sought a larger event to “bring the community together.”
“I wanted to make it bigger and better and more exciting, not just for the RBSA but for the community,” Powers said. “I wanted to make it fun for the kids, so it wasn’t just a parade, and they could have a day off from their games and play.”
The festivities attracted several hundred youth players to Veterans Field and the early reactions were positive.
the staff and various contributors of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, May 11th Civility Forum will be about Sports in Ridgewood. The lack of common rules and standards and what can be done to promote civility among coaches, players, and parents. Please come!
Civility Forum – May 11th at 7:30PM The next Civility Forum will be held at 7:30pm in the Senior Lounge at Village Hall. Rev. Jan Phillips will lead the discussion. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Business as usual for these Ridgewood sports groups.
I like the term “sports mafia” it has been this way since my daughter played some years ago and i do not believe it will change.
And this is “news” to who??? Many years ago, the Maroons may have been considered relevant. But now, if you want your kid to learn soccer, tryout for one of the many clubs in the more competitive leagues that have emerged. A greater commitment and more money, but a better experience overall.
The Maroons used to be a completely private club and through manipulation got themselves under the Parks and Rec department. In the past they would get fields to use if they were available which is fine or have to travel and use other towns fields which most parents were to lazy to do. Now as being under the Parks umbrella they want more and more field time.
Do you think that Lax is any different? Those that controlled lax for years have high school kids who never get any play time because – they never were any good at the sport. The dads controlled the travel teams for the benefit of their boys. Now that the dads are on the sidelines the kids are on the bench. Thank God for no cut teams.
They controlled the kiddie football too so their kids saw lots of play time there. Lots of boys wanted to play but if dad was not one or the six coaches (who worked out together because they thought that they were young bucks) they never got onto the field.
Youth sports in Ridgewood are all about the parents.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — No matter how much multitasking Jacob Brown does, he keeps at least one eye on his athletes at all times.
The Ridgewood High School girls track and field coach was chatting about his 44th and final season Wednesday at Ben Franklin Middle School. And that was in between a practice with the Maroon distance runners and the opening events of the Jack Yockers Bergen County Relays, in which RHS was competing the high jump and pole vault.
The latter happened to catch Brown’s attention when Maxine Earl vaulted 7-foot-6.
“I tell you what, Earl just looked really good going over [the bar],” the coach said with an admiring lilt. “She cleared that by six inches or a foot.
“I need to get my camera and take pictures of this,” he said, turning to head for his car.
Brown’s love and appreciation of the sport is just one of the reasons the Ben Franklin facility was recently rededicated as the Jacob Brown Track & Field Complex. The founder of the RHS girls program, who will retire at season’s end, was conferred the honor in a surprise ceremony prior to the April 4 Steve Pawlowski Ridgewood Relays.
The Maroons then went out and edged Ramsey, 110 1/2-110, to win the large schools title
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 — Coming off the program’s best record in four years and a top-five finish in The Record rankings, it’s hard to imagine that the Ridgewood High School girls softball team would be overlooked this season.
But that’s exactly where the Maroons stand, due in part to being a member of the powerhouse Freedom Division in the Big North.
“We have a really tough league,” RHS head coach Patti Auger said of the division, which includes No. 2 Northern Highlands, as well as defending State Group 3 champion Indian Hills, which is coming off a 34-0 season. “There are not going to be any easy games, and I like that. I’d much rather have great games where you’re challenged every day and it makes you better ballplayers and a better team.”
The Highlanders and Braves, as well as No. 16 Paramus, all appear poised to challenge for the division crown this season.
Meanwhile, the No. 13 Maroons graduated six seniors from last year’s 20-7 squad, but captains Rachel Pizzuti and Kali Wolfer have been happy with the way the team has come together in the early going.
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.
RHS Boys Lacrosse: Ridgewood ready to take the next step
March 27, 2015 Last updated: Friday, March 27, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
RIDGEWOOD — As satisfying as the achievements over the past three seasons have been for the Ridgewood High School boys lacrosse team, players and coaches are sick of the same ending that has befallen the program each of those years.
Ridgewood dominated on its way a third consecutive State Group 3 title last season, outscoring opponents, 48-16, during the four-game run through the North sectional to the group final. But once again, unfortunately for the Maroons (15-8), their run ended in the Tournament of Champions semifinal for the third straight year after losing to Delbarton, 12-6.
“We’re close, but for us, that’s not close enough,” said head coach Mike Pounds, who enters his 12th season at the helm with a 185-82 record.
This season, to replicate or even exceed recent success, the Maroons face the task of replacing several key components of last year’s attack, including their top three goal-scorers and point-getters in Andrew Seiter (38 goals, 29 assists), Owen Smith (43 G, 16 A) and Matt Shippee (35 G, 23 A).
Faceoff specialist Oliver Sippel, midfielder Alex Linton, defenders Joe Ricciardi and Dan Hurley and goalie Jack Cardew also graduated.
The Ridgewood High School boys 4-x-800 relay team finished fourth in the New Balance Indoor Nationals Emerging Elite Division last Friday at The Armory Track Center in New York. From left, head coach Josh Saladino, Kenny Marshall, Kotaro Tamura, Jack Byrne and Michael Thurston.
Indoor Track: Ridgewood girls, boys make most of appearance at Nationals
March 20, 2015 Last updated: Friday, March 20, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
One last meet on the biggest of stages provided eight Ridgewood High School runners a nice sendoff into the upcoming spring track season.
The Maroons finished up the indoor season with solid showings from senior Carleen Jeffers in the two-mile, as well as the girls distance medley relay and the boys 4-x-800 team at last weekend’s New Balance Indoor Nationals at The Armory Track Center.
“Qualifying for Nationals is not something that comes easy. It’s a result of all their dedication and hard work that goes into it,” RHS head coach Josh Saladino said. “For some of them, it was their first time on the big stage and what was encouraging to me was they all rose to the occasion. No one was content just being there.”
Jeffers, who has been the team’s headliner all year, finished 15th in the two-mile as the Maroons’ lone individual competitor.
“Running against the best in the country and hanging in there and battling with them is an accomplishment in itself,” Saladino said of the senior’s performance. “She’s as mentally tough as they come. To beat her, you’ve got to give it your best, because she’s not going to give you an inch, and she proved that again in that race.”
Jeffers’ time of 10:51.37, when converted to 3,200 meters, represented a 2.5-second improvement on her personal-best mark.
Tyler Welence, a 2011 Ridgewood High School graduate, has made a seamless transition on the diamond at McGill University in Montreal, helping the school to the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association tournament title last fall.
Former Ridgewood Baseball star excels north of the border
March 20, 2015 Last updated: Friday, March 20, 2015, 12:31 AM
By Matthew Birchenough
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood News
The past four years have taken Ridgewood native Tyler Welence throughout the western hemisphere, but no matter where he’s gone, he has always been playing baseball.
The 2011 Ridgewood High School graduate made his latest mark on the diamond last fall playing shortstop for McGill University in Montreal, which won the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association National Championship.
“This was the first time I was ever part of a team that ended up winning the highest honor possible, and the feeling was so foreign to me after we won, the sense of accomplishment didn’t set in for a few hours,” Welence said earlier this week.
For his performance during the Redmen’s run, Welence earned the tournament MVP.
“Honestly, I always just try my best to help the team win, whatever that means doing,” he said. “I was very happy I was able to play a role in getting our team the title, but it was truly a full team effort.”
Welence exhibited the same sort of team-first attitude in his years at RHS.
Opening Day Baseball Parade and Family Fun Day – April 18
Saturday, April 18th at 9am the Baseball Parade starts at Wilsey Square and marches to Veteran’s Field for Opening Ceremonies and a day of fun filled activities – Food Trucks, Vendor pavilion, music, inflatables, instruction clinics, sports demos, wiffleball tournament, carnival games and RHS vs Westwood HS Game.
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