Ridge Boys Lacrosse Beats Somerville for First-Ever County Championship

The Ridge High School boys lacrosse team's 8-4 victory over Somerville in Thursday night's Somerset County Tournament Championship brought the team it's first-ever county championship. In a nod to the local emphasis on lacrosse, the boys and the girls teams both won this year's Somerset County Tournament. Two days earlier, the Ridge girls lacrosse team won the championship with a 19-14 victory over Hillsborough.

Ridge goalie T.J. Jones was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Somerville and Ridge had faced each other in the first game of the 2013 season, when Ridge came away with a 10-2 victory. But Somerville, which arrived at Thursday's SCT with a 14-1 record, had not lost a game since then, and they were looking to even the score.

It was a sure thing that Ridge wanted to get off fast to put Somerville back on their heels.

"We knew we had to get on them early because they can score in bunches and they did that," said Ridge head coach Ken Marsh. "The kids stuck to the game plan."

And they did it just 48 seconds into the game, with an unassisted goal by freshman standout, Kevin Quigley. By the time the half had ended, Quigley had added another goal, Owen Molloy had scored 2 and Eric Scott another. Somerville would be blanked in the half by the relentless Red Devil defense.

But Somerville did respond with some fire, and scored two goals in the third period. However, Ridge countered and Kevin Quigley added his third goal of the game followed by one by J.T. Palladino and one by Alec Burckley. 

Somerville would add a couple of goals late in the game. But the smothering Ridge defense, anchored by the tournament MVP, goalie T.J. Jones, ensured the victory.

"It feels good to win," said senior Chris Palladino, an integral part of the Ridge defense. "It is good for coach Marsh to win his first one. He's been here a couple times and hasn't been able to get it. It's big. It is one of our goals, counties, states and TOC (Tournament of Champions). It's one more step to our ultimate goal, the TOC finals."

"It feels pretty good," said Owen Molloy, junior goalie/attacker for Ridge. "It is a big win for us." 

"This is the first ever (county championship), so it is nice to get that into our statistics," said middie Eric Scott.  "We keep rolling from here, we still have more to go."

"It's amazing," said Alec Burckley, middie and faceoff specialist, who won 10 of 16 faceoffs in the game. "We came so close last year and got destroyed by Bridgewater. We wanted to come out this year and win one for [coach] Marsh.  We've come so close and never won a county championship, we wanted to win one for him.  It feels amazing!"

The Ridge boys don't have any time to rest on their laurels as they start the NJSIAA North Group 4 playoffs on Friday.  Ridge, the group's top seed, will host West Orange at Lee Field at 2 p.m.

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