Girls lacrosse: Bernards advances to first SCT final

BERNARDSVILLE - Thursday's victory in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals was history in the making for the Bernards High School girls lacrosse team.

The third-seeded Mountaineers (14-2) defeated seventh-seeded Pingry School 9-5 and advanced to the first SCT final in program history. Bernards will face top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in the final on Saturday at Torpey Field in Bridgewater. The Panthers defeated fourth-seeded Hillsborough, 22-5, in the other semifinal on Thursday.

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"We're so excited to play Bridgewater, we can't wait," Bernards' Tegan Warren said. "We're expecting big things, we're ready to take them on, we're expecting to win."

Bernards, which defeated Pingry 14-5 on April 7, came out strong against the Big Blue on Thursday, taking a 6-0 lead at halftime. The Mountaineers didn't allow Pingry (7-10) a shot on goal until there was 10:48 remaining in the first half.

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The Big Blue started a rally in the second half, as Mary Pagano scored back-to-back goals in the first 1:30 to get Pingry on the board, 6-2. Elise Cohan answered back for Bernards, scoring back-to-back goals of her own to stretch the Mountaineers' lead to 8-2, but Pingry, which upset second-seeded Ridge in the quarterfinals, would not go away.

"We were expecting a crazy, intense game and that's just what we got," Warren said. "It was a lot of fun, but the biggest thing was that we had to keep our heads and keep our cool."

With 15:38 remaining, Shea Smith scored to cut the lead to 8-3, and Cathleen Parker scored with 12:56 to go to cut Bernards' lead to four. Hanna Christian scored on an assist from Warren with 9:17 to play to extend the Mountaineers' lead to 9-4, but with 3:17 remaining Pagano scored her third of the afternoon for the 9-5 final.

"We have such high intensity in practice and it plays on to our games and we're all very, very focused, so that helps translate onto the field," Warren said.

Bernards, which is in the midst of a six-game win streak, has only lost to Hunterdon Central and Ridge this season. The Mountaineers knew the Big Blue were coming off a big win over Ridge, and managed to keep their composure in order to advance to the final.

"We just knew how it felt against Ridge and we knew we just needed to play our game and keep the tempo for us," Cohan said of not wanting to lose. "We just held the ball and kept our heads up and played as smart as we possibly we could, because we knew whoever got the draw would score so we had to keep it together."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego

Bernards 9, Pingry 5

GOALS: (B) Cohan 4, Christian 2, McHale, Gillis, Warren; (P) Pagano 3, Smith, Parker; ASSISTS: (B) Warren 3, Simon, Christian; SAVES: (B) Grimm 7; (P) Foy 3.