River Dell’s Kirsten Wozniak, center, scored four and assisted on two more in the Hawks’ 15-1 win over Eastern Christian on Thursday. River Dell moved to 5-0, but are the Hawks a Top 10 team? Find out below.
NORTH JERSEY GIRLS LACROSSE TOP 10
Through games played on April 9
1. Ridgewood (6-0)
The Maroons have only further cemented themselves once again as North Jersey’s top lacrosse team through the first two weeks of the season, but now is when the real tests begin. Ridgewood will travel to Oak Knoll on Saturday then host Summit on Monday — and the team volunteered to come in Sunday, typically an off day for Ridgewood, to get an additional practice in. It’s a testament to how determined this year’s bunch of Maroons are, looking for any bit of extra work in their chase for a TOC title. In Ridgewood’s most recent win on Wednesday, a 17-6 victory over Mendham, Jordan Ford went for the double-hat trick and another four assists for the 10-point game, while Hannah Cermack added a hat trick and one assist and Alex Absey and Claire Smesko both scored twice. Ford has 30 goals and 13 assists this season and Cermack has provided 16 and 16.
2. Immaculate Heart (4-2)
Westfield snapped the Blue Eagles’ four-game winning streak on Tuesday, as IHA fell, 11-9, but not before a trio of Blue Eagles all reached notable milestones in defeat. Gabby Vinci recorded a hat trick, eclipsing the 50 career-goal mark (now at 51), Samantha Marmo posted a pair of goals to reach the 100-goal milestone and Josie Zinn reached the career 150-point plateau after posting one goal and one assist. IHA will look to start up a new streak on Saturday when it travels to West Morris Central.
3. Northern Highlands (6-0)
The Highlanders continued to roll on Tuesday in a 20-7 victory over Newark Academy, receiving six goals and six assists from Julia Bradbury. Only one year and six games into her high school career, the sophomore (with 32 G and 18 A this year) is on the verge of already reaching 100 career goals and will enter Saturday’s contest against Watchung Hills just seven away from the triple-digit milestone. Teammate Julia Corriston is also closing in on the same achievement after striking for three and three in the win over Newark and will enter Saturday with 91 career goals. Julia Pash posted a hat trick and four more assists on Tuesday, giving her 13 goals and a North Jersey-best 19 assists through six games. And a quick aside… I asked Highlands coach Mike Menzella after their win over Mahwah over the weekend, “How about the performance from Julia?” to which he responded with a laugh, “Which one?” I was referring to Bradbury, but the trio of Julias are currently Highlands’ top three leaders in goals, assists and points.
4. Mahwah (4-1)
The Thunderbirds haven’t returned to action since their 13-3 loss to Northern Highlands on Saturday (they’ll play Scotch Plains today). It was the first time this year that a young and essentially brand-new starting defense showed some signs of growing pains, which is almost always inevitable with an inexperienced unit. The bright side… it’s still only April 10 and there’s plenty of time for that defense to improve.
5. Ramapo (4-3)
Just hours after we posted the North Jersey scoring leaders on Tuesday, which featured Ramapo’s Danielle Van Calcar at the top of the list, the sophomore exploded for another 15-point game (10 G, 5 A) in the Raiders’ 21-9 win over Morristown-Beard. She has blown by 100 career goals (currently at 115) and has 55 points this season entering today’s matchup against Montclair Kimberly. Anna Powers, who is also listed among the area’s scoring leaders, provided four goals and three assists in the win over Mo-Beard on Tuesday, while Kali Nickles and Reilly Garner both scored twice. Ramapo is 4-3, but two of those losses came against state power Ridge and another against Highlands.
Saddle River Day’s Daniella McMahon during Tuesdays 13-8 win over Pascack Valley. The Stanford-bound junior scored three and added five assists, giving her 275 career goals and 55 career assists.
6. Saddle River Day (6-1)
In a game played in a hard, steady and freezing rain on Tuesday, Saddle River Day overcame an early 4-0 deficit against Pascack Valley and rallied with a 13-4 run to prevail, 13-8. Sisters Daniella McMahon (3 G, 5 A) and Michaela McMahon (4 G) and freshman Alexa Tsahalis (4 G) did the majority of the damage in the comeback victory. The start of this program began a couple years ago when coach Karen McMahon integrated the lacrosse basics to Saddle River Day gym classes then sought out anyone willing to join. Now in their third year, expectations — while not at the level of Ridgewood or IHA, or even Highlands [who they’ll play on April 17] or Mahwah [playing them April 30] — continue to grow. The Rebels, despite still being in their infancy stages, have firmly established themselves as a Top 10 team in Bergen County. The McMahon sisters are currently the headliners, but there’s rising talent on SRD aside from them with more athletes coming on board. In the past, Karen McMahon has been harder on her daughters than other members of the team, but that’s starting to change “because we’re getting better,” she said. “We know we have good athletes and I know what they can do physically. I’ll get on them and say, ‘You’re better than that.’ Not so much with the stick stills, because some are still learning, but all the intangibles.”
7. Indian Hills (2-4)
The Braves snapped their four-game losing streak (including losses to Ridgewood, IHA, Randolph and Ramapo) on Wednesday with a 5-4 win over Morris Catholic. Indian Hills received a pair of goals from Ann Wray and Kelly Pepper and one goal from Jayme O’Connor to prevail in the low-scoring affair. Braves goalie Shannon Bremer made 10 saves. With a young roster that lost some significant pieces from last year’s team, the record might not be ideal, but the Braves are playing strong competition every game. Their competitive two-goal loss to No. 5 Ramapo, 12-10, shows they’re still a Top 10 team.
8. River Dell (5-0)
Welcome to the Top 10, Golden Hawks. This preseason, when doing the preseason Top 10 rankings, a handful of teams were considered for the final spot. River Dell was certainly in the discussion and it has played its way into the poll with its 5-0 start. River Dell is averaging 12.8 goals per game, with Gabrielle Davidson (16 G, 7 A), Kirsten Wozniak (13 G, 6 A) and Gabrielle Toohey (11 G, 4 A) leading the way, while goalie Kayla Rowley — one of the best in North Jersey — anchors a defense that has allowed just 15 goals in five game (3.0 average). In River Dell’s 15-1 win over Eastern Christian on Thursday, Wozniak led the way with four goals and two assists, while Davidson, Toohey, Aimee Manzelli and Yasmine Khaddage all struck for multiple goals. After setting a program record for most wins in a season last year (11), the Golden Hawks — who graduated only three players from that team — are already almost halfway there on April 10.
9. Lakeland (4-0)
The Lancers haven’t played since defeating Holy Angels on April 4, but will return to action today when they host Newark Academy. Though four games, Lakeland has featured a balanced attack that is averaging 11.75 goals per game, the majority of which has come from five players — Annie Yost (14 G, 7 A), Zenya Koprowski (11 G, 3 A), Monica Scafuro (10 G, 1 A), Nicole Jaskot (4 G, 7 A) and Madison Burgner (6 G, 2 A). Goalie Daphne Leenas also continues to be a strength, already with 48 saves through four games.
T-10. Glen Rock (5-1), Waldwick (4-1) and Paramus (5-0)
It’s still a little too early to be able to separate these three American Central Divisions teams, so I’m cheating a bit. All three have strong records and all have one common opponent — Holy Angels — with very similar results. Glen Rock beat AHA by seven, Paramus beat AHA by six and Waldwick beat AHA by five. Breaking it down even further, these three teams have been scoring and defending at very similar rates as well.
– Waldwick, led by Morgan Sinton (16 G, 7 A), is averaging 12.0 goals per game, while allowing 7.2. The Warriors only loss is to No. 8 River Dell, 8-6, in both teams’ season openers.
– Paramus, led by Julia Koenemund (25 G, 9 A) and Nicole DiPasquale (a junior who surpassed the career 100-goal milestone in Thursday’s 13-7 win over Holy Angels and sits at 24 G, 3 A this season) is averaging 12.4 goals per game, while allowing 5.8.
– And Glen Rock, anchored offensively by a now-healthy McGara DeWan (31 G, 11 A) and Caitlin Callahan (13 G, 11 A) has the highest-scoring attack of the bunch at 15.8 goals per game, but has allowed the most, on average, of the three, at 8.0 goals per game (though that stat is somewhat misleading after surrendering 17 to IHA last Saturday — the Panthers’ only loss).
If all that’s enough, the three teams are separated by just 12 spots on laxpower.com too (not what I go by for rankings, but still interesting) — Rock is at 52, Paramus at 53 and Waldwick at 64. Fortunately, it will all sort itself out and become much clearer when they all start playing each other, starting with Waldwick vs. Paramus on April 15.
Keeping an eye on…
The trio of Old Tappan (4-1), Pascack Hills (3-1) and Ramsey (3-2), which is muddled right now since Ramsey beat Old Tappan, but lost to Pascack Hills, while Old Tappan beat Pascack Hills but lost to Ramsey. Both the Rams and Cowgirls are currently on three-game win streaks and Old Tappan has won two straight. Old Tappan’s Haley Symons has 36 of the Golden Knights’ 55 goals this year (65 percent) after striking for seven in OT’s 11-7 win over Wayne Valley on Thursday. Pascack Hills’ Caitlin Ernest leads the Cowgirls with 18 goals on the year and Pheobe Shields now has 16 after striking for five in the Cowgirls’ 11-5 win over Fair Lawn on Thursday. And Ramsey just got a four-goal performance from Reece Levine and a hat trick from Maddie Cheyne in the Rams’ 18-6 win over Clifton on Thursday.
Pascack Valley (2-3) — I’ve seen two Pascack Valley games (vs. Lakeland, at Saddle River Day) and there are times when the Indians certainly look like a Top 10 team — like when they jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Saddle River Day or when they rallied from a 6-1 deficit against Lakeland to take a 7-6 lead with six straight goals, but they relinquished those leads in both instances. They could crack the Top 10 at some point with more consistency. Natalie Bade, Ana Beyer and Lydia Christiano work well together offensively.