Sports
Ridge Drops State Semifinal Faceoff to Randolph
Reigning champ Randolph comes away with 2-1 ice hockey win.
Ridge High School hockey won't be back in the state finals for the first time since 2009 after suffering a 2-1 overtime loss Tuesday to Randolph at Codey Arena in West Orange.
Ridge came out strong and at the 8:15 mark, Ben Raff took a slap shot from the right side near the blue line and beat the Randolph goalie for the games first score.
Both teams played a rather even second period, and no team proved to be dominant until 6:49 in the 3rd period when Randolph's Noah Leinward would fire a wrist shot past goalie Robbie Fenton.
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The game went into overtime tied up 1-1. "I assumed all along this would be a sudden death game," said Ridge coach Tim Mullen Sr.
Early in the overtime period, a handful of players from both teams surrounded the Ridge goal when Mitchell Gaudioso of Randolph collected the puck and flipped it over goalie Robbie Fenton for the win. The game was over just 1:36 into the overtime.
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"We had a lot of fun this year," said Mullen. "Robbie (Fenton) played really well, everybody played good, nobody played bad. We lost to a good team. It was exciting."
"We just let up a little bit in the third period, and we let them get a couple shots," said Kyle Leddy. "We played a good game as a team, so we can't be too disappointed. We are sad it is over, but we accomplished a lot. It's too bad we can't keep going."
