Boys Lacrosse: Bridgewater-Raritan tops Pingry for SCT title

BRIDGEWATER - Make that 37-straight wins for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys lacrosse team.

The top-seeded Panthers (14-0) defeated third-seeded Pingry 11-8 in the Somerset County Tournament final on Saturday, winning their second-straight title and extending their winning streak to 37 games. The Big Blue (11-3) was denied the county title for the second-straight year.

"It feels great, there's nothing like it," Bridgewater-Raritan's Brian Kolen said. "It's just one step in our long journey and we're still going to come out and compete every day because we still have more hardware to win."

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Bridgewater-Raritan jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Kolen and Ethan Locker with 2:46 remaining in the first quarter, and proceeded to lead the entire game. Pingry's Ben Shepard' scored his 100th career goal with 18.1 seconds remaining in the first quarter to cut the lead to 2-1.

Ryan Kaden scored 47 seconds into the second quarter to put the Panthers ahead 3-1, but another goal from Shepard kept Pingry close, 3-2, with 4:37 left in the half.

"I think in the beginning we came out and we weren't as crisp as we would have liked to be," Kolen said. "But after we slowed things down and went back to the fundamentals, we started clicking a little better on all cylinders."

Bridgewater-Raritan then stepped it up in the third quarter, outscoring Pingry 5-3 to take a 9-5 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Kolen scored his third goal of the game two minutes into the final frame to put the Panthers ahead 10-5, but the Big Blue kept coming. With 7:45 remaining Thomas Zusi scored his second goal of the day to get within 10-6, and Shepard added a goal with 2:08 to play to cut the lead to 10-7.

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Sean MacKinney added an insurance goal for Bridgewater-Raritan on an assist from Kolen with 1:03 remaining for an 11-7 lead, and with 32.9 seconds left Austin Chang scored for the 11-8 final.

"We were seeing cutters, we practiced our two offenses all week and we were just looking good, we found the open guy and we were able to put some shots away," Kaden said. "I think we just have to keep on working on our fundamentals and work on the little things during practice because that's what's going to keep us ahead in big games, so if we're not sloppy and we're keeping the ball in our possession I think maybe it works more in our favor."

Joe Lenskold was pivotal on the faceoffs for the Panthers, winning 13-of-22. Jamie Zusi won nine for Pingry.

Next up for both teams is the state tournament, which begins next Wednesday, and it's possible that there could be a rematch of Saturday's final in the near future.

"I don't think it means much," Kaden said of the current winning streak. "We want to win the next game in front of us and whether it's Pingry or Ridge, or whoever we're playing next, that's who we want to beat and that's where we want to be, on the winning side when the scoreboard hits zero."

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

Bridgewater-Raritan 11, Pingry 8

GOALS: (BR) Kolen 3, Locker 2, Kaden 2, MacKinney 2, E. Christensen 2; (P) Shepard 3, T. Zusi 2, Enman, Moss, Chang; ASSISTS: (BR) Kolen 3, Kaden 2, MacKinney; (P) T. Zusi 2, Chang, Shepard, Cummings, Moss; SAVES: (BR) O'Neil 8; (P) Dillon 6, Metzger 6.