Girls Lacrosse: Pingry falls to Oak Knoll in the Non-Public A final
RARITAN TWP. – The Pingry School girls lacrosse team slayed one giant in Bridgewater-Raritan to win a first-ever Somerset County Tournament title in a season that also featured single-campaign records for wins (21) and goals scored (372).
The Big Blue needed to oust another nemesis in Oak Knoll Friday afternoon to win a first-ever state championship. But it wasn’t to be as the Royals (18-4) used a 4-0 first half run in the NJSIAA Non-Public A final en route to an 11-8 victory, the same score the Summit school beat the Big Blue in last year’s championship game.
“It’s just unfortunate that we didn’t win, but it definitely doesn’t take away from the season that we’ve had together,” said Pingry senior Bella Goodwin, who’ll play at Duke.
The meeting between the Somerset and Union champs was expected to be tight. Goodwin’s goal closed the deficit to 10-8 with 7:03 left in regulation. Pingry (21-4) had two possessions to make it even closer but couldn’t.
Pingry sophomore Becca Kirschner scored to tie the game 2-2 with 20:43 left in the first half. But four Oak Knoll goals made it 6-2 with 12:40 left in the half. Oak Knoll led 9-4 at halftime after Carson Didden’s goal with .9 seconds left in the half. Consecutive Goodwin goals opened the second half.
“We didn’t come out how we would have liked today,” said Goodwin. “We just didn’t come out to a good start, and we dug ourselves into a hole. It was really unfortunate because we just didn’t play our game in the first half.”
Pingry came into the game on a seven-game win streak.
“We came out a little flat and gave them a five-goal lead in that first half and that was it,” said Big Blue coach Carter Abbott, adding that the team did win the second half.
What does it mean
Oak Knoll won its eighth-straight state title and third-straight in Non-Public A. The Royals won five consecutive Group 1 titles from 2015-19 before moving to Non-Public A prior to the start of 2021. Pingry also lost to Oak Knoll in the 2019 and 2018 Group 1 state finals.
Stars Of The Game
Bella Goodwin, Pingry – Goodwin collected four goals and seven draw controls. She finished her three-year high school career with 250 goals and 143 assists for 393 points. She holds school records for both career goals and points and single-season goals (111) and points (167).
Her final goal – her 15th in four state tournament games - cut the Pingry deficit to 10-8.
Mary Claire Morgan, Pingry — The senior made four late first half saves to keep Pingry close. Morgan closed out her career with 112 saves on the season, 146 for her career. She had six Friday.
They said it
Goodwin on what makes Oak Knoll so successful, “I think that they’ve been on the stage a lot a lot of times before, they’re very familiar with it and they’re very gritty. They came out with a lot of energy (today), they came out really strong and won a lot of 50-50 balls.”
Big Blue coach Carter Abbott said, “They are the Goliath, it’s tough to take down Goliath. This is a talented, talented team (Pingry) and I was so proud of them today and of what they did all season long.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Girls Lacrosse: Pingry falls to Oak Knoll in the Non-Public A final
