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FIELD HOCKEY

Metuchen field hockey wins 1st GMCT title since 2006

Lauren Knego
Courier News and Home News Tribune

It's been a long time coming for the Metuchen High School field hockey program.

Eleven long years the Bulldogs waited to bring the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title back to Metuchen, and on Thursday night, the wait was over.

The top-seeded Bulldogs (15-1-1) defeated No. 2 South Plainfield 1-0 to win their first GMC Tournament crown since 2006. 

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Sarah Jeney scored on a pass from Emily Glutz off a penalty corner with 14:32 remaining in the first half, and Metuchen made the goal stand up as the Bulldogs beat the Tigers (13-4-2) for the first time this season.

"It's actually how the play was exactly supposed to go, so I inserted it in to Emily, and then Emily passed it back to me, and I would hit it in, and that's exactly what happened, and I'm so glad that happened," Jeney said. "It's more of a team thing, it's not like I scored the game-winning goal, it's we won."

Thursday night was the third time this season that South Plainfield and Metuchen  met. In the first meeting on Sept. 11, the Tigers won 2-1, and on Sept. 28, the two teams battled to a 0-0 overtime tie. Those two games were the Bulldogs' only loss and only tie of the season, which fueled Metuchen's desire for victory in the GMC Tournament final even more. 

"We said we lost the first game against them, we tied the next one, this time we're going to win. We're going to give it our all and really push for it," Metuchen goalie Kamryn Chaudry said. "We definitely did different preparation, the first game we were kind of afraid because in past years they've always beaten us, so we kind of went in with the wrong mentality. Then we just really pushed forward, we practiced having great passes, which we implemented in the game, and kept changing up what to do based on what they were doing, talked about it and actually committed."

Chaudry stopped all 11 shots she faced as the defense combined for Metuchen's sixth shutout of the season. Tatianna Sutor finished with eight saves for the Tigers. 

"I think they played really well, they were always getting to the ball, getting back," Chaudry said of her defense. "Even when the ball did get by them, they always rushed back to help me out and I can always trust them."

South Plainfield, which was looking to win its second-straight GMC Tournament title, had a chance at the end of the game to send it to overtime. With time expired, the Tigers were awarded back-to-back penalty corners, but Metuchen's defense held strong and kept them from scoring. 

"It never registered in my mind that that they were going to score and it was going to go to overtime," Jeney said. "It was, 'We have to get the ball out no matter what and we can't let them score,' that was the mentally we had. I think that shows how much our girls really work hard and how much they really, really wanted this. We all wanted this so much and we're so happy that we executed well tonight."

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