Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

Bridgewater-Raritan’s Ally Mastroianni scores against Montgomery on Thursday in Montgomery. Photo by: Jeff Granit

MONTGOMERY — The youth movement that has taken over the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls lacrosse team was on full display Thursday afternoon against Montgomery.

Not only did the young Panthers come away with a 17-2 victory to move to 11-2 on the season, but freshmen scored 14 of the 17 goals, with phenom Ally Mastroianni leading the charge with five goals and four assists.

Teammate Hannah Hollingsworth added four goals and Kirsten Murphy chipped in three goals as Bridgewater-Raritan continued to learn on the fly and improve as a unit. Mastroianni, who entered play with a state-best 90 points (55 goals, 35 assists) scored three times from the free position arc and assisted on three straight goals and four of five in the second half, when the Panthers had eased off the jets. She said that playing with teammates she’s had since elementary school has helped the learning curve this season.

“It has really helped; everyone on the team is such a good help for us and they’re always encouraging and helping each other,” Mastroianni said. “Everyone is getting so much better, from the first practice to now, and I’ve noticed that we talk more and we’re all stepping up our game. We work super-hard in practice and in games as well and we’re just getting better every game and I see big things for us.”

The freshman class, with as many as six first-year players in the starting lineup from game-to-game, has been noteworthy all season long, but the young players stepped on the gas to turn a 3-1 game into an 11-1 one in just 11 minutes of game play, putting Montgomery (3-8) away.

“I think we’re becoming smarter and we’re becoming better under pressure. We’ve learned what the roles are on the field and we’re able to play off of one another; the girls know each other’s strengths and weaknesses now and that’s something that comes from having so many new players on the team,” Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Kathie DeBonis said.

Lindsay Alvarez and Emily Miller, both juniors, scored the other three Panthers’ goals, as eight different players recorded at least one point. Freshman goalie Ariel Weismann made five saves in the cage, showing off her skills against a Montgomery offense that came into play averaging 9.5 goals per contest.

Weismann, another one of those players that’s been on the same team as Mastroianni for years now, gave way to senior Gina Kim in the final moments, with the outcome no longer in doubt. But whether she finishes games or not, Mastroianni knows how far this group has come and she realizes that they’ll only continue to get better.

“I’ve been playing with these girls since we were all little and I knew we had so much potential and I knew that the older girls were good players as well and we would come together like we have,” she said.

Freshman Tori Bobal netted both Montgomery goals, bookending a 14-0 Bridgewater-Raritan run. Classmate Allyson Weakliem came up with six saves in the cage, thwarting the Panthers’ offense and preventing any further damage.

While its evident that the young Panthers have vast skill sets, DeBonis knows that she doesn’t need to be hard on them when a pass goes awry or an opportunity is missed in transition.

“I think the girls are harder on themselves than I am on them,” DeBonis said. “They want to do well and they want to please and it’s more intrinsic on them at this point.”

Voorhees’ Stephanie Linzer is guarded by Bernards’ Lauren Crane during the first half on Thursday in Bernards. Photo by: Jason Towlen

BERNARDS TWP. — With her team trailing for the first time since the opening moments of the game, Bernards High School girls lacrosse coach Jessica McGinn called timeout to settle her players down.

In the 10:59 that followed, the Mountaineers responded with a 4-0 run to erase a two-goal deficit and earn a 13-12 victory over Voorhees on Thursday.

Emma TenBarge and Tegan Warren each scored four goals, and Warren connected for two of hers during the four-goal run that started at the 13:16 mark of the second half and culminated nearly 11 minutes later.

“I would like to think it was something I said, but I don’t even remember what I told them,” said McGinn of the timeout. “It was just an amount of time that we needed to collect ourselves and be reminded how we should be playing at all times. We lose sight of it a little bit.”

After building a 12-10 lead, Voorhees — which was pesky all day long and refused to go away quietly — attempted one last comeback. The Vikings got it down to 13-12 and scooped up a loose ball and earned a free position shot with 32 seconds left on the stick of their most effective player on the day, Katie Koller.

But Koller’s shot found the webbing of goalie Payton Barta’s stick and not the back of the net and the Mountaineers were able to run out the remaining seconds for the victory.

“Payton always plays well and today was a little up-and-down for her,” McGinn said. “She missed some that we’ve been working on, but she came up big and made the saves that she needed to.”

Barta finished with seven saves, but none bigger than stoning Koller — who scored three goals and added three assists for Voorhees (5-3), which trailed 7-6 at halftime and led just twice in the game.

“We came out a little flat and we played well, but it was just some small things that we didn’t do well and Bernards is a very good team, so they capitalized on our mistakes,” Voorhees head coach Courtney Thibeault said.

Freshman Paige Petty scored two goals and added an assist and Grace Gillis and Andra Scaliti each chipped in goals for Bernards (7-2), to give it five different goal scorers on the day.

“It’s not just Emma and Tegan for us; they do a great job finishing, but the difference this year is that we have so many players creating plays, offensively and defensively, and that’s the difference,” McGinn said. “It’s great that we have players that can finish, but we have so many that contribute.”

Olivia DiRienz, Stephanie Linzer and Hannah Ryan each scored twice for Voorhees, which got nine saves from goalie Genevieve Schweikert.

But in the end, the draw controls were the difference, as Bernards controlled 14-26 and used the possession to tax the Voorhees defense.

“The draw was huge for us. It was the defense coming off the line that made the impact for us. We didn’t have the midfielders win every time, we have some very versatile, pro-active defenders that helped us today,” McGinn said.

Coming off a season in which it won just five games, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls lacrosse team has used a youth infusion to race out to a 7-1 record.

Led by freshman sensation Ally Mastroianni and a five-pack of classmate starters, the Panthers have already won more games in 2014, but head coach Kathie DeBonis knew what she was getting with this first-year class.

“I have been watching this group of young ladies since they were in fifth grade and I’ve seen them at camps and I knew they were a special group coming up,” DeBonis said. “We had high expectations for them and we have the speed and the size, but we’re developing the game sense and we’re still solidifying the confidence.”

Mastroianni has already scored 39 goals and added 28 assists for 67 points in the Panthers’ first eight games. DeBonis said that she was aware of Mastroianni’s skill from when she was younger, attending youth camps.

“We knew she was special back then, but now that she has this supporting cast around here, it was just a matter of time before she put it all together,” DeBonis said. “I think that a total level of talent that the freshmen have has raised the entire level of play of our program. Synergistically, I think all of these freshman have had a great affect on our program.”

The other contributing freshmen include Hannah Hollingsworth (18 goals, 14 assists), Julia Lytle, Kirsten Murphy, Melissa Hawkins, Addison Reilly and goalie Ariel Weismann (85 saves, 4.5 goals against per game).

Having these freshmen making such an impact has taken some of the playing time from the upperclassmen on the squad, but DeBonis, who has coached at Bridgewater-Raritan for 18 seasons, said that she’s always prided the players in the program on knowing what roles they need to play game in and game out.

“The sooner everyone can embrace their roles, the better the whole team will play,” she said. “Some games, we have upperclassmen being leading players, some days they take on more of a complimentary role. The junior class has been very receptive of the freshmen. They’re really looking out for them.”

The Panthers have a showdown with North Hunterdon on Thursday (4:30 p.m.), which should show the progress the young squad can do against a more-experienced Lions for the Skyland Conference’s top spot.

Unbeaten Watchung HIlls

One of the few unbeaten teams left in the state, Watchung Hills is putting the ball in the back of the net at a very high rate to begin its season. But the success of the Warriors (5-0) hasn’t surprised head coach Stephanie Linder one bit.

“I’m not surprised that we’re 5-0,” Linder said. “I know this week is going to be tough, but we have such a strong sophomore class and they’ve been dominant for us so far.”

Watchung Hills has scored 14.2 goals per game this season, with sophomore Lindsay Carroll (15 goals, nine assists) and sister Amanda, a junior (17 goals, seven assists) leading the way. But Linder hit on the play of her defense, which has held four of its five opponents to under 10 goals.

“I thought we’d take a big hit on defense after last season, with all of the graduation, but they’ve been doing such a great job,” Linder said. “Add in that we start three sophomore midfielders and it’s been great. I’m glad we’ve picked up right where we left off last year.

The Warriors will be tested this week, with games against undefeated Immaculata and 7-1 North Hunterdon.

CLINTON TWP. — Heading into overtime, head coach Stacy Ditze outlined a specific plan for her North Hunterdon High School girls lacrosse team.

It was a simple one: score quickly, win the ensuing draw and try and maintain possession for as long as possible to hold on for a win.

The Lions checked off every one of those goals and even added a second goal for some added cushion, and captured an up-and-down affair, 14-12 in overtime against Hunterdon Central Saturday afternoon.

Senior Julia Wood led the scoring brigade with seven of the Lions’ 14 goals, including both in the two three-minute overtime sessions, and three in a 3:12 minute stretch to open the second half.

“I have to give it up to Allison [Lane], who fed me multiple times off the draws, so it wasn’t just me; it was a huge team effort,” Wood said. “I just finished and it was very nerve-wracking for us, playing down a man for so long.”

North Hunterdon (6-1) went down a man for the remainder of the game when it was whistled for a fourth yellow card deep in regulation. Per the referees, the Lions played the final moments of regulation and all of overtime down one player, but even with a disadvantage, North Hunterdon scored the game’s final five goals, erasing a 12-9 deficit with 8:06 to play.

When asked how her squad was able to get the victory, despite all of the cards, Ditze didn’t have a definitive answer.

“I’m not so sure [how we won this game],” she said. “In the end, it was the draw that was the difference. Especially in the overtime. We had a really good plan going into the overtime and we put a second goal in, which wasn’t even a part of the plan but it helped us out.”

The two teams played a roller-coaster type game right from the start, when the game was tied on three separate instances in the first 12 minutes of play. But Hunterdon Central seized control from there, getting two goals from Courtney Patterson and one each from Kira Greer and Holly Andersen to take a 7-4 lead into the half.

But North Hunterdon would battle back, getting three of Wood’s seven goals in succession in the opening minutes of the second half, with classmate Allison Lane picking up a pair of assists in that spurt. Lane, who averages better than four goals per contest this season, was held without a point in the first 25 minutes, but she used her size and strength to rack up two goals and two assists in the second half. She was a dominant force on the draw control, using her height advantage to earn possession for the Lions on multiple occasions down the stretch.

“Allison’s height helped us tremendously today, but Central did a really good job of boxing us out. I just told them that we needed to take one step back and go around them on the draws and we’d be OK,” Ditze said. “We weren’t as strong today as we usually are, but her height is huge. In overtime it really showed for us.”

Patterson finished with four goals for Hunterdon Central (2-4) and Greer and Carly Mastrogiacomo each scored twice. The Red Devils held three different three-goal leads, but couldn’t control the draws down the stretch to preserve an upset victory.

Immaculata’s Kelsey Graham fires off one of her four goals as Somerville’s Amy Miller and goalie Sarah Clark try to block on Thursday in Somerville. Photo by: Kathy Johnson

SOMERVILLE — Despite building up an eight-goal advantage late in the first half, the Immaculata High School girls lacrosse team had to hold on for dear life Thursday afternoon against its neighborhood rival.

Behind the balanced scoring of seniors Kelsey Graham and Sojourner Mineo and sophomore Jenna Naples, Immaculata held off Somerville 15-13, to remain unbeaten in the young season.

The Pioneers closed the gap to one on two occasions in the second half, but never were able to tie it or take the lead, as Mineo posted three of her four goals in the final 9:33 to boost the Spartans (5-0). The first of those goals came just seconds after Mineo’s two-minute penalty had expired, and she sprinted into an open area of the field and beat goalie Sarah Clark to put Immaculata up 12-10.

“That was definitely a turning point for us; we just realized that we needed to get back in the game and keep pushing the issue and the game wasn’t over yet,” Graham said. “It was a little scary, for them to come all the way back against us like that, and we definitely didn’t expect it, but we’re willing to adjust and work with what happens.”

Mineo put Immaculata up 14-10 with 7:46 to play, taking the draw control straight down the field and beating Clark just inside the crossbar, but Somerville (2-3) refused to go away quietly. Star junior Dakota Pastore scored two of her game-high 10 goals in the final minutes, nearly bringing the Pioneers back all by herself. Pastore also reached her 200th career goal, becoming the first player in her program to reach the milestone.

Half of Pastore’s goals (one of which was her 200th career goal) came from the free position arc, as Somerville shot 5-6 as a team on free position shots. But having dug themselves such a big hole — Immaculata led 9-3 at the half — was just too much to overcome for the Pioneers.

“Early on the girls were a little rattled, being down so quickly, so it took them a little bit to get their focus together,” Somerville head coach Maylin Harter said. “But I had a lot of confidence that once we could get the draw, we could score without problems and Dakota is such a phenomenal player. We’re extremely lucky to have her.”

Graham spearheaded the Immaculata run in the first half, scoring three times in the first 11 minutes of play, including two free position shots. Her fourth goal, also from the free position arc, with 8:02 remaining, was part of a 3-0 Spartans run that was ultimately the difference. Graham credited her teammates for never losing faith in themselves, despite Somerville’s comeback attempt.

“This year, the team dynamic is completely different and we really know how to work like a team and get the ball around and it just works great for us,” Graham said. “Everyone is a part of it and I love it. It’s an indescribable feeling to be a part of this team this year.”

Naples recorded a hat trick in the first half for Immaculata and added a fourth goal midway through the second half, while goalie Kendall McKeon came up with five saves, none bigger than a doorstep robbery of Pastore with 1:20 left and the Pioneers down by two.

Earning a victory over their local rival — the two schools are just half a mile apart — is something the Spartans can take for the next part of their season, according to Graham.

“We’re going to use this win to set us off for the rest of the season,” she said. “It was awesome to get this one.”