Girls Lacrosse: South Brunswick tops Old Bridge
MATAWAN - The South Brunswick High School girls lacrosse team is on a mission this season, and a win over GMC rival Old Bridge brought the Vikings one step closer to their goal.
South Brunswick (8-4) snapped a two-game losing streak with a 7-4 victory over the Knights (7-6) on Tuesday, and has one GMC game remaining against J.P. Stevens on Thursday. If the Vikings can get a win, they'll lock up the No. 2 seed in the GMC Tournament which starts May 10.
"We're really excited about this win because we have one more GMC game to win and if we win that we'll be the second seed," South Brunswick's Caroline Hvozdovic said. "So we're really excited about that and I think this was one of our tougher games that we really had to work for, so we're really proud of our fight."
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Shannen Sterner and Hvozdovic got the Vikings off to a fast start, connecting on the first two goals within the first five minutes of the game for a 2-0 lead. With 17:24 remaining Eliza Ryan scored for Old Bridge to cut the lead to 2-1.
Lindsay Szucs scored on an assist from Emily Lorber to put South Brunswick ahead 3-1 with 16:14 left in the first half, and a minute later Old Bridge answered back on a goal from Melanie Santurro to again pull within one, 3-2. Hailey Konopka then scored on an assist from Hvozdovic and the game went to halftime with South Brunswick leading 4-2.
"We were definitely expecting a good game," Konopka said. "We were expecting a hard battle and a good result at the end, we're really proud that we pulled it out at the end."
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The Vikings started the second half the same way they started the game, with a quick goal from Sterner to take a 5-2 lead. Abby Zimmerlink scored with 16:11 left to get the Knights to within 5-3, but a goal from Lorber kept South Brunswick just out of reach at 6-3 with 11:35 to play. One minute later Ryan scored her second goal of the day on an assist from Emily Lopes to cut the lead to 6-4.
"It was really hard with their defense being right on you the entire time, but we were able to get cutters in and get the ball and score," Sterner said of the offense.
Briana Gonzales scored on Konopka's second assist of the afternoon with 7:54 to go and the Vikings kept Old Bridge off the board the rest of the way for the 7-4 final.
"Defense we did really well, we kept the cutters out, we kept then out of the eight," Konopka said. "Offensively we just have to make sure that we hold it, get a good possession and that's what we really worked on today and that's what helped us win."
For Old Bridge, Ryan won 9-of-13 draw controls, while Konopka and Sterner combined to win four for South Brunswick.
Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego
South Brunswick 7, Old Bridge 4
GOALS: (SB) Sterner 3, Szucs, Konopka, Lorber, Gonzales; (OB) Ryan 2, Santurro, Zimmerlink; ASSISTS: (SB) Hvozdovic 3, Konopka 2, Lorber; (OB) E. Lopes 2; SAVES: (SB) Apicella 12; (OB) Fedor 5.