By: Rich Fisher
Talk about cramming stuff together.
The South Brunswick High girls lacrosse team played for the Greater Middlesex Conference title last Thursday afternoon, SBHS held its senior prom Friday night, and the Vikings had to take a nearly two-hour ride into the wilds of Sussex County to play a first-round NJSIAA North Jersey A state tournament game.
Hopefully, those lucky enough to attend the prom had a good time, because the games that sandwiched the party were a bit of a bummer.
The Vikings suffered a 7-5 loss to East Brunswick in the GMC title game Thursday, and lost 10-5 to Vernon in Saturday’s state game.
"I really wanted the GMC title, really, really bad," said defender Jasmine Hemmings, the team’s lone senior. "It was nice to move on to states too, but this was first year we got to the GMC championships and to the states.
"Two years ago we made states, last year we got to the GMC finals. So a lot more energy had to be exerted this time."
"It was disappointing," junior Ashley Foltiny said. "I think we had a good shot to win the GMC’s, we just didn’t follow through."
The Vikings, who finished the season at 9-9, were playing their best lacrosse of the year entering those final two games.
Against EB, South Brunswick rallied from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits for a 4-3 lead, only to have the Bears tie it just before intermission. The Bears roared out of halftime with three straight goals, and the Vikings spent the remainder of the game trying to get back in it.
"We felt confident at half, that we actually had a chance to win this one," Hemmings said. "But those three goals shocked a lot of the girls and they didn’t know how to take it. It threw some people off their focus."
"I think we just had a few mistakes on defense, and we couldn’t get back together," Foltiny said. "At halftime, I thought we could do it. We were playing well, we were pumped up."
But this was a different EB team than the Vikings defeated, 8-6, two weeks ago.
"I think they just worked the ball a lot better on offense and their midfield transition was much quicker," Hemmings said. "They improved a lot. "It was tough to take, it was a little upsetting. We all really wanted it, they came out really strong in the second half and we just couldn’t match up to them."
The Vikings had 48 hours to get that game out of their system, and had a prom to help them do it. After a long bus ride, the Vikes trailed 1-0, came back to tie it at 1-1, but then watched Vernon score eight straight for a 9-1 halftime lead.
Hemmings felt it might have been a combination of a long ride and a possible letdown.
"That ride took forever," Hemmings said. "And it was kind of hard letting go of the GMC game, because for a lot of the girls, it was disappointing losing two years in a row in the finals. I think we let it go, and the (Vernon) game was going back and forth but they just took it away.
"When the score was 1-1, we were outplaying them, but we couldn’t place any of our goals. We had a lot of good shots, but they weren’t going in. After a while, we got tired, we weren’t holding up as well, and just fell apart."
The Vikings did rally for four goals in the second half, but it was not enough as Vernon advanced.
Foltiny felt the loss to EB got the Vikes psyched for Vernon, though the effort said otherwise.
"I think we were fired up for that game, because we were so disappointed about the GMC game," Foltiny said. "Our first half was just really slow, though."
Katie Campisano, who had one of the goals against Vernon, put the entire three days in perspective.
"We could have beaten Vernon, but we were really tired," she said. "There was just a lot going on."
LAX LEFTOVERS: The Vikes were without second-leading scorer Danielle Bussiere against Vernon . . . leading scorer Alana Jogan scored twice against EB and once against Vernon, while Campisano had a goal in each game.

