Bridgewater-Raritan girls lacrosse claims third-straight SCT title

BRIDGEWATER - For the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls lacrosse team, this year has been one long send off for the seniors.

There are 13 seniors currently on the Panthers' roster, and according to Ally Mastroianni, they're one of the reasons the team has experienced so much success this year. Bridgewater-Raritan (15-1) won the Skyland Conference Delaware Division title, and on Saturday overcame a slow start to earn its third-straight Somerset County Tournament title.

The top-seeded Panthers endured driving rain throughout the course of the game to defeat second-seeded Bernards 10-5. It's the second year in a row that the Panthers and Mountaineers have met in the final, as Bridgewater-Raritan won last year, 20-3.

BOYS LACROSSE: BRIDGEWATER-RARITAN WINS SOMERSET COUNTY TOURNAMENT TITLE

MORE: NJSIAA GIRLS LACROSSE BRACKETS

"It feels awesome, I'm so proud of these girls, it's so fun playing with them, there's a lot of seniors on this team so it feels great to win it one last time," Mastroianni said. "We just have so many strong players and us playing together every year, it's made us unstoppable."

Bernards (13-3), making its second-straight appearance in the final and second in program history, took a 3-2 lead into halftime thanks to goals from Paige Petty and Elise Cohan. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Bridgewater-Raritan found its footing in the second half, outscoring Bernards 8-2.

"It feels awesome, we worked so hard and it's great to come back and win it," Mastroianni said. "I think they were just clicking more than we were, we were making some silly mistakes, and I think we picked up our fundamentals and really started playing as a team and it showed in the second half."

Mastroianni said that the Panthers played a tougher schedule this season, which helped prepare the team for the difficulties of the postseason. Despite having to come from behind, which is something Bridgewater-Raritan isn't necessarily used to, the team came together in the second half and found a way to win.

"We go off the motto which is, 'make the next play,' so I think we were just trying to go one goal at a time, take one at a time," said goalie Arielle Weissman, who recorded her 600th career save on Saturday. "So I think that was really working for us, we weren't trying to get ahead of ourselves in the game and thinking towards the end."

Bridgewater-Raritan opened the second half with six-straight goals to take an 8-3 lead with 14:12 remaining. Bernards cut it to 8-4 with 9:23 to play, but back-to-back goals from Mastroianni put the Panthers ahead 10-4 with 1:58 left in the game. Cohan scored the final goal with 18 seconds left for the 10-5 final.

Petty led Bernards with two goals and one assist while Cohan scored twice. Laurel McHale added one goal and one assist.

Hannah Hollingsworth and Tai Jankowski each recorded a hat trick for the Panthers. Mastroianni added two goals and one assist. Weissman finished with nine saves and gave credit to her defense.

"I think they played phenomenal, they play phenomenal every game," Weissman said. "So when we have little slip ups we don't really look at that as a bad game, it's just little bumps in the road. With this team being able to see how much we're grown over the past three, four years, it's pretty special to end in our county as the ones on top."

Both teams now turn their attention to the state tournament, which starts on Monday. Bridgewater-Raritan earned the top seed in North 2 Group IV, while Bernards was named the No. 1 seed in North 2 Group II. Both teams have byes into the quarterfinals.

"It's amazing, we've been playing together since fifth, sixth grade, so to have these big milestones and accomplishments and to see the end product come together is really special," Weissman said. "I think everybody is ready to hit the road and start running faster than we've already been, so big things to come."

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