Behind two goals from junior Grace Hallahan, the Chatham High School (N.J.) Girl’s lacrosse team jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter of its Morris County Tournament quarterfinal game against Morris Knolls (4-8).
The second-seeded Cougars (9-4) rode that strong first period performance to a 15-8 victory over the Golden Eagles Saturday afternoon at home.
After seeing Morris Knolls in mid-April, Chatham head coach Helen McCutcheon-Oliver said she knew what her team needed to do, first and foremost. She said she drilled into her squad about not letting the Golden Eagles establish themselves in the first half.
“We saw Morris Knolls a couple weeks ago,” McCutcheon-Oliver said. “They gave us a really, really strong first half. We were up 4-3, then 6-5, so it was very close in the first half. Then, we pulled away in the second half. All we talked about was coming out strong from the first whistle, and not waiting for second half to play hard.”
Fortunately for Chatham, it listed to its wise and experienced coach, adding three more markers to the Golden Eagles’ one that had it taking a commanding 7-1 into the locker room.
But Morris Knolls found the back of the net first with 9:07 left in the third quarter before senior midfielder Josie Pruss responded with a goal of her own a little over two minutes later to push the Cougars’ advantage to 8-2.
Senior attacker Cameron McGlynn, who is committed to Division I Lehigh, fired one by The Golden Eagles’ goalie Gretchen King to widen Chatham’s lead to 9-2 with 5:30 remaining in the third period.
Morris Knolls narrowed the gap to 10-4 by the end of the third quarter.
Looking to down the Golden Eagles, senior Addison Barret, who is committed to D-1 Princeton, opened up the final period with a tally, making it 11-4 with 9:57 to go in the game. Barret, who recorded two markers in the affair, picked up her 100th career high school point in the contest.
Morris Knolls registered two unanswered markers to bring the score to 11-6 with 6:49 left in the tilt. But McGlynn and Pruss drove home a tally each to put the contest (13-6) out of reach with 2:42 left in the game.
Ashlynn Carpenter and Hallahan scored four goals apiece for the Cougars, with Hallahan (three assists) totaling seven points in the win.
Freshman Tessa Simone paced the Golden Eagles with three goals. Junior Vanessa Russo and sophomore Lucia Nash each scored two goals for Morris Knolls. Nash also recorded two assists.
Chatham faces Mendham Wednesday in the MCT semifinal at a YTBD site and time.
— Jerry Del Priore
NY NJ Sports World/Brooklyn Sports World 