Last-second goal helps Ridgewood girls lacrosse get revenge in dramatic rematch with IHA
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Some players wait a lifetime for revenge. Riese Doherty had five days.
The Ridgewood sophomore went from agony to ecstasy on Thursday afternoon after scoring a late buzzer beater against Immaculate Heart. She collected a pass from in tight, corralled her own rebound, then fired a shot to the bottom right corner with 4.5 ticks on the clock.
Instead of settling for overtime, the Maroons dug deep enough for a 9-8 victory that meant so much more than a usual crossover.
This was their first meeting since Saturday when IHA upset Ridgewood to snap a streak of 18 straight county titles. The first game since surrendering the No. 1 ranking to the Blue Eagles.
Maybe no one wanted a second crack more Doherty, who had the word revenge scribbled in black marker across her left forearm.
"I was the one with the last shot last time but it didn't go in," Doherty said. "So I really wanted to make a change and feel like I could benefit our team."
Doherty was hardly the only Maroon who impacted change in the rematch. So did Samantha LaBier, who picked apart the Blue Eagles with three goals and two assists. The Maroons defense also stepped up in crunch time, holding IHA to one goal in the final quarter.
Sophomore Katie Adams alleviated much of the pressure by going 13-for-20 on the draw.
"[Losing] stunk," Doherty said. "It was disappointing. But Monday we showed up to practice with a new mindset that was really important. We wanted to improve how we played and not feel sorry for ourselves."
What it means
Beside the emotional boost comes a long-term benefit for Ridgewood (11-6). Keeping the game on the schedule gave the Maroons a chance to improve their playoff position after coming into Thursday with the third most powerpoints in their section.
"We never discussed [cancelling] it before or after the county final," Ridgewood coach Jim Montegari said. "We wanted to keep moving along. I need the game because of powerpoints because we're short games. Even with the bad weather, we talked about it today, we were both like we want to get the game in. It's a good thing we did."
Inside the match
Ridgewood got off to a much better start this time behind some crisp passing and a physical ride. But the pendulum started to swing towards IHA midway through the game when the Blue Eagles turned a 6-3 deficit into a 7-6 lead. During a timeout late in the third quarter, Montegari lit into his team.
"I didn't like our shot selection," Montegari said. "We had a scout and we were doing the opposite of what we scouted. I thought we should have held the ball a couple times when we forced it. I don't know why we were pushing it so hard when we had the lead."
Ridgewood went ahead 8-7 on back-to-back goals by LaBier and Adams and came inches away from icing the game late in the fourth quarter. Doherty pinged a shot off the post with a little over a minute left and Immaculate Heart scooped up the ball and called timeout. That set the stage for Olivia Valente, who completed a hat trick with 47 seconds late to knot it up at eight.
Out of another timeout, Ridgewood cycled the ball around the perimeter before sophomore Stella Cuneo wove a pass to Doherty in front of the crease.
"The team really came out hungry," LaBier said. "We were fired up. In practice, we kept the intensity up and we wanted to come out and win this game. This game meant a lot to us."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Last-second goal helps Ridgewood girls lacrosse get revenge over IHA
