Chatham Falls in Heart-Pounding OT Battle Against Summit in Girls’ Lacrosse North Jersey, Group 3 Sectional Championship

With top-seeded Chatham High School (N.J.) Girl’s lacrosse team leading 8-7 against No. 2 Summit late in the game, the Cougars were on the losing end of a questionable call. It led to a free position shot for the Hilltoppers, which went wide.

However, Summit retained the ball, and would up scoring not tool long after that, to tie the tilt at 8-8 with 1:38 remaining in the affair. It set the stage for the Hilltoppers, as they found the back of the net at the 2:24 mark in overtime to help them claim the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJISAA) North Jersey, Group 3 Sectional Championship over Chatham (20-2) Tuesday evening at Haas Field.

While she was upset to lose, Cougar head coach Helen McCutcheon-Oliver took solace in the fanatic season they had, reaching heights never seen before at the program.

“I’m extremely proud of the group,” McCutcheon-Oliver said. “It really stinks to lose this game on our home turf. But I’m really proud of this senior class and what we did this year. They have so much to be proud of. They put us on the map nationally. We held our spot at number one in the state for a really long time. We did things that no other Chatham team done before us.”

But McCutcheon-Oliver did not downplay the Cougars’ miscues at times, with the all-out effort not enough to come out of the winning side.

“We didn’t play our best game today. We hustled hard and we worked hard,” she explained. “But it didn’t show in the Xs and Os. It doesn’t come down to one play, but the score does. So that’s really hard to swallow.”

Summit (18-4) jumped out to 1-0 advantage within the first minute of the tilt. But Chatham answered back quickly to even the affair at 1-1.

Both squads traded goals before the Hilltoppers pull ahead, 4-2, to end the first period.

Then, senior Grace Hallahan caught the ball on the run and converted it into a score to slice the deficit to 4-3 with 10:51 to go in the half.

But Summit responded with two unanswered tallies to pull ahead by a score of 6-3 with 7:25 left in the second period.

Not to be denied, junior Annie Irish, who found the back of the net four times in the tilt, drew the Cougars to within two goals (6-4) with 7:06 remaining in the half.

From there, Chatham roared back with three consecutive markers, with Irish scoring the last as time wound down in the third quarter, to take a 7-6 advantage.

Much to the Cougars’ dismay, the Hilltoppers knotted the score again at 7-7 with 11:06 left in the fourth period.

But junior Nicolette Grossman gave Chatham an 8-7 lead with 3:11 to go in the game.

Then came the tough-luck call against the Cougars, followed by a Summit goal that forced overtime, and senior Parker Febo’s eventual tally that handed Chatham the heart-breaking defeat.

Hallahan had two goals and an assist, while junior Peyton Furst scored a marker and had three helpers for the Cougars.

The Hilltoppers with host Moorestown Saturday (TBA) in the NJSIAA Group 3 State Tournament Championship.

— Jerry Del Priore