By: Sean Moylan
Put a group of highly-skilled, veteran self-motivators together with a head coach who is a strategical genius and you have the currently undefeated (not including yesterday’s results) 2006 Northern Burlington County Regional High School girls’ varsity lacrosse team.
The Greyhounds haven’t just beaten their opponents, they’ve destroyed the majority of them. In the Greyhounds’ latest blowout, an 18-0 home win over Manalapan on Monday, Justine Titko scored two goals (she also had two assists) to reach 100 for her career. Yet unlike her teammate Alyssa Pigott, who reached the century mark in goals in the closing seconds of a game two weeks ago, Titko scored her big goal early in Monday’s contest.
"It’s a special occasion when you have two girls score their 100th career goal in a two-week period of time," said NBC head coach Dave Adam.
While Pigott and Titko are certainly special players, they are just a small part of what makes this team sensational. In Monday’s game alone NBC had 15 different players score. Some lacrosse programs only have 15 players. In addition to Titko’s heroics, Pigott scored a goal and set up five others. Yet that was just the start. Alayna Morris and Brit Gleeson each had two goals and two assists and Jaime Ireland collected a goal and an assist while Danielle Chuba, Nikole Such, Danielle Terracciano, Amanda Bothwell, Chelsea Stevenson, Brit Hart, Ashley Melton, Steph Lebak, Kelly Brodowski and Rachel Cannuli each tallied once. Amanda Magee didn’t even have to make a single save to earn the win. Meanwhile NBC shot 30 times.
NBC knew coming in that Manalapan was a new program and its chances for a win were good. Still, Adam kept his kids intense and prepared throughout the game.
"It’s tough because going into the game the kids were relaxed and you have to re-focus them," said Adam, who kept his team’s energy level up with multiple substitutions. "Everyone got a chance to play the last 10 minutes of the game."
Northern Burlington, however, is not trying to beat up on weaker teams. In fact, it held a 15-0 lead at the half and worked on things other than scoring in the second half. But the Greyhounds’ defense never gives in.
"Our goal is to get Amanda a shutout every time out," added Adam.
While the Greyhounds didn’t quite get Magee a shutout in last Wednesday’s home game versus the Chimeras, NBC did the next best thing by plastering Willingboro, 19-2.
"Our goal coming in was to use out team play to shut down their dominant player (Jodine Bennett)," said Adam, whose club held Bennett to just a single goal.
Titko exploded for five goals and two assists versus Willingboro while Such scored four times while assisting on a goal. Pigott (two goals, three assists), Morris (five assists, two goals), Ireland (two goals, an assist), Brodowski (two goals), Chuba (goal and assist) and Terracciano (goal) also provided plenty of offense for the winning side. Magee made four saves in goal as the Chimeras shot six times. NBC recorded 32 shots in the contest.
NBC’s best competition this past week came in a 10-6 win over Cinnaminson last Friday. But, after a close first half (NBC led 4-3), the Greyhounds showed the Pirates who was in control with a stellar second stanza.
"In the second half of the game our leaders on offense took over," said Adam, whose team knew Cinnaminson would come in "fired up" for the game. NBC’s big guns, Tiko (five goals, two assists) and Pigott (four goals, an assist) really took care of business versus the Pirates. Such scored NBC’s other goal while Ireland picked up an assist. NBC took just three more shots (20-17) than Cinnaminson did. But Magee was strong in goal and made 10 saves to post a well-earned victory. Many teams are coming out strong against the Greyhounds because they want to be the first team to beat the undefeated squad.
NBC was scheduled to have hosted Delran yesterday (Wednesday). NBC is scheduled at Holy Cross on Friday. Then on Tuesday, NBC is scheduled to host New Egypt.
BOYS
The Northern Burlington High School boys’ lacrosse team clobbered Hightstown, 13-0, on Tuesday to earn its first varsity win in its history. Sophomore J.J. Schmitt led the way with five goals but Dave Rogers (three goals), Wade Veselka (three goals, two assists), Kenny Hynes (two assists, a goal) Will Stevenson (goal) and Paul Veselka (assist) also had great days for the winning team.
NBC is scheduled to host Saint Joe’s today (Thursday) and Notre Dame on Tuesday.

