Ridge Boys Beat Southern Regional for Group 4 LAX Championship

The Ridge High School boys lacrosse team moved one step closer on Wednesday night to achieving this year's goal of taking the state Tournament of Champions. Playing on neutral ground in Somerville, the Red Devils decisively won the Group 4 Championship over Southern Regional, by a 12-4 margin.

The win over Southern Regional enters the Red Devils into the state Tournament of Champions. The team will play against the other group champions until a single winner remains.

Long Beach Island school Southern Regional came onto the field having lost only one game during the entire season to face Ridge, a team that spent the season in the state's top 10, having played some of New Jersey's top teams.

The game got off to a furious start, but neither team could get past the respective defenses and goalies. It would be Southern that would break the ice and put up the first goal of the game with just 45 seconds left in the first period.

Undaunted, it would take Ridge only 16 seconds to tie the game on an unassisted goal by Eric Scott. Scott ultimately scored 4 goals in the game.

As the second period got underway, Owen Molloy would give Ridge the next goal, and the lead that would never be relinquished. Molloy went on to score a second goal, Alex Gaydos would add two and Alec Burckley, Ray Abbiatici, JT Paladino and Kevin Quigley would each add one goal.

"All year we had the ability to score in bunches, we did that today at times, and it opened the game up and helped deflate them (Southern Regional) a little bit," said Ridge head coach Ken Marsh. "They did all right, they got it done when they needed to get it done. They showed their poise and their character to get it done when they needed to."

With Wednesday's win, Ridge returns to the Tournament of Champions for the first time since 2010. "I have two seniors that were in the third group championship they've played in and a majority of the seniors have played in two championships," said Marsh. "They've got experience at this level and we are happy they were able to finish it off tonight."

"This feels great," said middie and faceoff specialist Alec Burckley. "We knew what we had to do, we just needed to get focused. We bounced back and eventually found our rhythm."

"We came back after a really bad start, we gave that team some goals they really shouldn't have had," said Ridge goalie TJ Jones. "The defense held down pretty strong, but I didn't save a lot of shots. But the offense put the ball into the net and that was a team we could just roll over. It is another goal to reach the TOC final, we have high expectations for ourselves.

"We have to keep working hard because our season is not over yet," Jones added.

""It was awesome," said middie Eric Scott, who scored a game high 4 goals.  "It feels good to get back here again in my senior year. We hope to finish it off and just keep rolling. We might get a bye in the first round, but if not, we have to go and whatever team we play just put up our best effort."

The Tournament of Champions brackets have yet to be determined. The games will begin Saturday, and the TOC finals will be played June 8 at Kean University.