Guts over glamour, diligence above dazzle, sweat over style.
It really doesn’t matter which contrasting elements you decide on to explain Glen Ridge’s recipe for building a five-goal lead in the first 21 minutes of play Thursday against Delaware Valley.
You won’t be offending any of Glen Ridge’s offensive players.
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In fact, junior attackman Stephen Grobr, senior attackman Connor Sutton and the rest of the offensive unit will gratefully accept it as a badge of honor that they’d be happy to wear in the quarterfinal round on Monday.
Using transition as its main attacking tool in the first half, fifth-seeded Glen Ridge established a hard-nosed, stick-checking tone that it carried to an 11-6 victory over 11th-seeded Delaware Valley in the first round of the NJSIAA South, Group 1 tournament Thursday in Watsessing Park in Bloomfield.
Grober scored three of his career-high five goals in that opening half, and Sutton finished with two goals and four assists to send the Ridgers (12-8) into the quarterfinals against the winner of fourth-seeded Shore vs. 13th-seeded Lower Cape May.
“We really didn’t get anything going in our settled offense, so we had to capitalize based off the defense getting turnovers or just creating chaos off the face off. From there, we just had to seek opportunity, push it in transition and capitalize,” Sutton said.
Through that consistently rugged approach, the Ridgers were able to dominate the ground ball battle, 37-27, even though senior Branden Sozanski was able to claim 10-of-16 faceoffs for Delaware Valley.
“A lot of our goals today weren’t the pretty; kind of got them the dirty way, unlike in the regular season when they were a little more flashy,” he said. “We really kind of grinded it out, took what we could get, and that’s what you’ve got to do in playoffs.
Between that tireless ride orchestrated by the attackmen and offensive middies and the constant clacking of sticks echoing at the other end of the field, Glen Ridge forced 12 turnovers in the opening half en route to a 6-2 halftime lead, then created 14 more in the second half to remain several steps ahead of the Terriers (11-8).
“We created in the first half I think five transition goals, all from the poles,” first-year head coach Anthony Sicoli said of Cameron Atkinson, Chris Smith, Mason Giamo and John Leone.
“Our ride has been something we’ve really been working on - our 10man. That’s just that 10-man mentality,” he said. “Just everyone working. And it starts, honestly, with the attackmen there.
“I think they’ve done a better job in the ride in many games than in their real job, which I love .”
Sicoli would. He was a scrappy attackman who relished opportunities to force the ball to the carpet off the ride at Kinnelon in the late 1990s, early 200s. He then transformed himself into a pain-in-the-neck defensive middie at Rutgers.
Not only did the defense help out the offense with their gritty efforts Thursday, but they personally generated some of it, as well. Leone fed Grober on his fifth goal in transition for a 9-3 lead with 1:29 remaining in the third quarter, and Smith delivered a 16-yard exclamation point off a feed from Brad Foster to cap the day’s scoring with 1:05 left in the game.
“At the beginning of the year, honestly, defense was not really our bright side,” Grober said. “Had a couple injuries, guys in and out. But they really settled it down now got their stuff together and we’re looking really good now.”
Foster, Ryan Mansfield and JP Labadia all scoredone goal each to help Glen Ridge win for the fifth time in six games and 11th time in the last 14.
Senior attackman paced Delaware Valley with three goals and Jack Rynearson, Cole Fritsche and Nicholas Marinelli each scored once for the Terriers.
Will Fritsche closed out his fabulous career with 230 points on 152 goals and 78 assists, but Glen Ridge’s ball-swarming activity early on helped keep the ball away from his stick and out of danger.
The Terriers were able to unleash only six shots in the opening half, scoring twice on left-handed rockets from Fritsche.
All that lively defensive play is precisely what a team wants to see come playoff time, yet it plays out a little empty if those transition plays aren’t resulting in goals.
Enter Grober, who did a remarkable job all day of chasing ball handlers in the riding game and then moving into prime position once ground balls were obtained for scoring opportunities.
“All throughout practice, coach has been pushing us to move off-ball. We were very stagnant on offense the last couple games, so we’ve just been working a lot on moving off-ball in transition if we can’t get anything going in the settled offense,” Grober said.
“Grober was there. It might seem simple to just sit in a spot, but you have to first get to that spot and then the other kids have to trust you,” Sicoli said. “Your stick’s got to be up and you have to create a little bit of a lane. And he finished inside, which we’ve been asking him to do.”
Delaware Valley cut its deficit to 6-3 when Will Fritsche netted his third goal 3:39 into the second half, but Glen Ridge responded with consecutive goals from Grober, Labadia and Grober again over the next 6:52 for a 9-3 advantage.
That burst proved crucial, because Delaware Valley sank two goals inn the final 44 seconds of the third quarter (Cole Fritsche and Rynearson), and Marinelli connected with 6:50 left on the game to bring Del Val to within 9-6.
Foster scored with 2:57 to go for a 10-6 lead.
Mike Kinney can be reached at [email protected].
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