VERONICA YANKOWSKI East Brunswick’s Emily Goldstein and Sayreville’s Jamie Jarusiewicz battle for the ball during their GMC Tournament semifinal game in East Brunswick on Oct. 26.
Cindi Todoroff certainly knows a thing or two about developing field hockey teams.
Over the past 20 years, the East Brunswick High School coach has been developing the Lady Bears into one of the best programs in the Greater Middlesex Conference. All they’ve done lately is win the GMC in 1997, share the title in ’94, win the postseason tournament in ’95, and lose in the tournament finals in ’93 and ’96.
Todoroff deserves a great deal of the credit for that success, but she had an even bigger hand in the development of this season’s team. You see, a couple of years ago, Todoroff "demoted" herself to freshman coach while letting one of her former players-turned-assistant coach run the varsity.
The reason? Todoroff claims she needed a break first and foremost, but she also admits she was excited by the promise and potential she saw on the freshman level and wanted to take a more hands-on approach in their development.
Those freshmen are now juniors, and Todoroff is back coaching the varsity. And the Bears are doing what they’re usually doing, which is winning. East Brunswick went a perfect 12-0 during the regular season to win another GMC championship, and then captured another league tournament crown last Saturday with an exciting 2-1 overtime victory over South Plainfield.
In fact, that win improved the Bears’ overall season record to a sparkling 17-1, and they’ve won 17 straight games after a 3-2 season-opening loss to Westfield.
"They’re a very solid team, but we just didn’t have our act together that day," Todoroff said. "We got over that real quick, though, and made some adjustments. We developed some chemistry I knew was always there."
There’s been no stopping the Bears ever since, although they’ve had some close calls. The win over the South Plainfield team in last week’s championship game marked the third overtime game this season between the two rivals, with East Brunswick winning all three in dramatic fashion.
And all those close wins make going unbeaten in league play all the more special.
"That’s a huge accomplishment," Todoroff agreed. "It’s kind of tough to come out two and three times a week and keep it going. You have to have a lot of stamina and endurance to come out after a long day in school and play like that, game after game. That was kind of neat.
After drawing a first-round bye in the GMC tournament, East Brunswick had another close game against No. 5 seed Sayreville in the semifinals. They took a 1-0 lead, and then after Sayreville tied it, the Bears went ahead 3-1. But their lead was cut to 3-2 before scoring the final goal with no time left on the clock.
"They gave us a run for our money," Todoroff said. The championship game was even closer as the Bears were clinging to a 1-0 lead until South Plainfield tied it with only 28 seconds left in regulation.
Then in overtime, SPHS came close to pulling off an upset victory when it took a shot that had the goalie beat and appeared to be headed for the empty net. But sophomore midfielder Amee Chroniewski came out of nowhere and alertly cleared the ball right before it went in.
"Amee saved the game," Todoroff said. "That ball was headed right for the cage."
Right after that play, the Bears were awarded a 16-yard hit, and center midfielder Tara DeMarzo sent a pass 45 yards upfield where forward Janine McMillin picked it up for East Brunswick. The fleet-footed McMillin outmaneuvered two defenders, and as the goalie came out and straight at her McMillin passed the ball between the goalie’s legs before cutting behind her and shooting it into the empty cage for the game-winning goal.
"It was a tremendous save by Amee, and a tremendous pass by Tara, and Janine did everything right after that," Todoroff said. "It was just a great high school game.
It also gave East Brunswick a measure of revenge. Last year, when the Bears went 14-6-1, they lost to South Plainfield in the GMC semifinals in, you guessed it, another overtime.
"A lot of our players from that team are back this year and they all remember," Todoroff said. "That gave them a little more incentive."
One of those players is McMillin, who has been the Bears’ main force on offense all season with a team high of 20 goals.
"She’s been our go-to girl," Todoroff said of the senior tri-captain, who has already made a verbal commitment to the University of Delaware. "She has great field vision, and when she draws a lot of attention from defenders she passes off and sets up three or four other girls."
That would include forward Lauren Clarke, another senior tri-captain, who Todoroff calls "our rover" because she "plays where needed and floats from side to side. It’s an athletic position and Lauren is a phenomenal athlete," she explained.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Wehringer and Tiffanie Wong, a pair of juniors who both played for Todoroff as freshmen, are the Bears’ right and left wings, respectively. Sherry Liu, another junior, is the first sub off the bench and also sees a great deal of action, while seniors Swathi Nambur and Rachel Goldstein and junior Emily Goldstein add more depth up front.
While DeMarzo, the other senior tri-captain, patrols the middle of the field, junior Rachel Schneider and Chroniewski play the right and left midfield positions, respectively.
Two more juniors, Alexandra Schmidt at right back, and Melissa Cirello at left back, help anchor the defense, along with senior Heather Reiner at sweeper. Sophomore Katie McMillin and senior Julie Beck have also seen action in the backfield. The Bears have also had the luxury of using two solid goalies, Jackie Cancro and Taryn Rhodes, who are both juniors.
But as outstanding a season as the Bears have enjoyed so far, they aren’t ready to end it yet. East Brunswick is scheduled to open state tournament play today at 2 p.m. against GMC foe Piscataway in the North II Central Section.