Monroe field hockey repeats as GMC Tournament champion

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - Heading into the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, the second-seeded Monroe High School field hockey team knew it would have to play its best game in order to knock off top-seeded South Plainfield.

The Falcons used tight defense and a smart offense to repeat as GMC Tournament champions with a 2-0 victory over the Tigers on Thursday night at South Brunswick High School.

Thursday was the third time this season the two teams had met, with Monroe winning the first matchup 2-1 and South Plainfield winning 4-0 in the second game.

“I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew that we wanted to get our revenge and redemption for our last loss,” Monroe goalie Zoe Rosen said. “So it was a clean slate for us because we won and they won, so I’m just happy we came out with the win.”

South Plainfield (17-3) outshot Monroe 9-5 and had the advantage in penalty corners, 17-6, but it was the Falcons’ defense that led the way to their second straight title.

“We knew it was going to be a tough one; it was exactly what we thought it was going to be,” South Plainfield coach Melissa Szeliga said. “It’s always a very emotional, physical game, and the girls did everything they could. I’m so proud of them.”

At the start of the game it was the Tigers who started off strong, spending a large majority of the first half in the Falcons’ zone. The tide began to turn toward the end of the half, and that’s when Monroe pounced.

Ashlyn Petersen scored the first goal on an assist from Josephine Pagano with 4:41 remaining in the first half. Monroe was awarded a corner, and the ball rattled around a bit after the insertion before Pagano sent it to Petersen, who sent it past South Plainfield goalie Stephanie Bohn.

It was more back-and-forth in the second half, but again it was the Falcons who capitalized when the opportunity arose. Monroe brought the ball up the field, and Bohn came out to challenge. Abby Viola took a pass from Nithya Bheeman and sent it into the wide-open cage for the 2-0 lead with 12:06 remaining.

“I definitely think our passing was working well,” Petersen said about the Falcons’ offense. “We usually rely on just running up the field, but I know that we’ve been practicing-give and-gos and we’ve been using them more in games, and it definitely helped us today.”

Despite having a man-advantage for a total of nine minutes, seven of which were in the second half, the Tigers’ offense couldn’t find a hole in Monroe’s defense.

“They were pretty solid for the most part,” Rosen said of her defense. “Sometimes you would be like, ‘What’s happening?’ because one girl would throw their sticks into our team, and then our team would go back, so it was just back-and-forth. But they kept it close and they kept the ball out, which was what I was looking for, and they listened to me, which was huge.”

Rosen made nine saves for Monroe, while Bohn stopped two shots for the Tigers.

South Plainfield was looking to win its first GMC title since 2013, when it won its second title in two years. Last year the Tigers fell to Monroe 1-0 in the final.

“They’ve worked so hard this offseason. They had their mindset to get back to this spot from last year,” Szeliga said. “We had a very young team last year, so to even get here last season was a huge thing for us. They knew how hard it was to get here, so they knew how much work had to be put in to get here again, and they put that work in this year.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com