Ridge girls soccer wins sectional title over Scotch Plains-Fanwood
SCOTCH PLAINS - Call it revenge. Call it unfinished business. For the Ridge High School girls soccer team, beating Scotch Plains-Fanwood in the NJSIAA North 2 Group IV final on Friday, it was a little bit of both.
The fourth-seeded Red Devils (15-4-2) dealt No. 3 Scotch Plains-Fanwood (18-1-3) its first defeat of the season, 2-1, in penalty kicks, to win their second sectional title in a row. Ridge lost 3-2 to the Raiders in double overtime in 2014 in the sectional final.
READ: RIDGE GETS PAST WESTFIELD IN A SHOOTOUT
“We came into this game underdogs, so we knew we had to get a win, and it feels very much deserved for the way we played,” Ridge’s Ally Friedman said. “(It was) unfinished business, we knew coming in they’d be a great competitor so we had to give it our all and came out with the win.”
After 100 minutes of scoreless soccer, the game went to penalty kicks. Ridge’s Anna Hess took the first shot and scored against Raiders goalie Andrea Leitner. Julia Lindsey’s shot went wide, and Leitner made a save on a shot by Amanda Cox. Up 1-0, Ridge goalie Katie Grierson made saves on Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s first two shots, Taylor Diggs scored to tie it 1-1.
“I just take a deep breath, I block out the crowd, everything,” Grierson said. “I think about me and I think about one save at a time, I don’t think about the previous one, I don’t think about the next one, it’s just in the moment.”
Friedman, the fourth shooter for the Red Devils, scored for a 2-1 lead, and the Raiders’ next two shooters sent the ball over the goal to give Ridge the victory and the sectional title.
Both teams had chances to score throughout the game, with the Raiders almost taking a 1-0 lead with 8:55 left in the first half, but the goal by Erika Muskus was waved off due to an offsides call.
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“They obviously had an undefeated season, we knew that they were going to be a really good opponent,” Hess said of the Raiders. “Our team goal coming in to this was to play for each other, and team defense was huge, we needed to be dangerous in the final third. It was a pretty even match all the way through, Scotch Plains is a great opponent, they have some really good players, they were getting some really good shots on goal so I think there was a lot of hesitation on things but we finally followed through, which is awesome.”
Emma Wightman came close to giving Ridge the lead midway through the second half, but Leitner was there to make the save.
Leitner finished with seven saves for the Raiders, while Grierson and Ally Lindsey combined for seven saves.
For Ridge, this has been a trying week. Friday’s game was the second game this week that went to a shootout, as the Red Devils defeated top-seeded Westfield 5-4 in penalty kicks in the semifinals on Tuesday.
“It’s very hard mentally, but we’ve worked on it in practice. We do penalty kicks every day in practice, our goalies practice them all the time, so we’re very prepared, very ready for it,” Friedman said. “We get in that mental state at practice, it’s very serious, so obviously we were ready. We won both games off of them, so let’s hope we have no more.”
Now, the defending Group IV co-champion advances back to the Group IV semifinals where it will face Livingston on Tuesday at Somerville High School.
“It’s going to be very tough competition,” Friedman said of the Group IV Tournament. “We have to keep playing the way we’re playing and hopefully score some goals in regular time.”
Central Group IV Final
Hunterdon Central 2, Freehold Twp. 0: Luciana Zullo scored twice as top-seeded Hunterdon Central (19-1-1) won the Central Group IV sectional title over No. 2 Freehold Township (17-3-4). Sam Senatore had one assist. Ava Gillikin made two saves. Hunterdon Central will face Toms River North in the Group IV semifinals at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Hopewell Valley High School.
Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego