County title highlighted season
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough High girls’ lacrosse team has demonstrated many times within the past few years that it’s much more than a one-player show. This year, after the graduation of superstar Ali DeLuca, the Raiders proved it for an entire season.
With a much younger, less experienced group on the field this spring, Hillsborough started slowly. However, as head coach Beth Murrin accurately predicted, the team improved during April and became a real force in May.
The HHS girls put together a 10-game win streak, including an exciting run to their second Somerset County title. They came within one goal of advancing to the sectional final for the second straight year. Hillsborough finished with a 15-5 record and earned the No. 19 ranking in the final state poll.
"It was absolutely a success," Murrin said. "Each of the last few years we set a standard that we need to live up to. That’s a challenge."
The Raiders went into battle without DeLuca, one of the most prolific scorers in New Jersey history, but they also graduated several key defensive players. A bunch of newcomers stepped in and grew into their roles as starters and key players. There were still several solid veterans in the program, but it took time for these players to mesh. Once that happened, the Raiders became a dangerous team. They were balanced, with several players capable of scoring and starting the attack.
"This year, I’m sure a lot of people thought we were going to be down, but this year was what we made of it," Murrin said. "We thought we could get back to that level, but in a different way. This year’s team, player for player, was a stronger team than the last few years. We made that step forward."
Hillsborough had to beat two very good teams to win its second county championship in the past three years. Last spring, the Raiders were stunned by Bridgewater-Raritan on their home turf in the SCT semifinals. This year, they trailed Ridge on several occasions in the semifinals before rallying to an exciting overtime victory. The second-seeded HHS girls were underdogs in the county final but avenged a previous regular season loss to B-R by beating their rivals for the title in another thriller.
Senior Katie Marino, who finished her outstanding four-year career with 158 goals, dominated the county final. Marino scored six goals and was the unanimous choice for MVP in the team’s 12-11 triumph. The Raiders bolted to a 7-3 lead but had to fight back from two deficits later in the game before playing keep away in the waning moments to preserve the victory.
It wasn’t an easy weekend for the HHS girls, who had the enormous distraction of the Friday night senior prom. Many teams have folded or come out flat in post-prom athletic events, but these girls wanted the county trophy.
"It was a group of 20 all playing together," Murrin said. "We were the better team that day. They had to make sacrifices but they were willing to give all that up. They built a very strong team and the reward was that county final. They all really worked for that."
While Marino received the well-deserved MVP honors, fellow senior starters Nikki Smartt, Lisa Cannellos and Lauren Griggs also came up big in this game. Smartt and Cannellos anchored the defense and kept Bridgewater’s dangerous attackers in check and Griggs made some huge saves late in the game under pressure.
Smartt and Marino represented their school in the state all-star game earlier this month. Both four-year standouts will continue their careers on the Division 1 level at Rutgers. Smartt, a defensive wing, led the Raiders with 76 ground balls. The team’s most tenacious defender also made 26 interceptions.
The HHS seniors did a fabulous job as team leaders, but all the success would not have been possible without the maturation of the younger players. Junior center Sara DiClemente emerged as a great two-way player and junior second home Lindsey Watts, who now ranks fourth in program history with 124 career goals, continued to develop as a consistent scorer.
Marino led the Raiders with 79 goals and 39 assists, while Watts was second with 53 and DiClemente ranked third with 43. DiClemente also had 55 ground balls and a team-high 35 interceptions.
"I’m very happy with the development of Sara as our center," Murrin said. "She had some amazing, great moments this year."
The team’s other key players were sophomores first home Dorian Gilmartin-Dzitko (20 goals, 38 assists), attack wings Kelsey Palmer (24 goals, 7 assists) and Tina Marino (14 goals, 7 assists), defensive wing Katie DeLuca (47 ground balls, 18 interceptions) and defenders Nicolette Minutillo and Alexa Jarvis.
"These kids are good athletes and we had to start our season based on that," Murrin said. "As we went through the season, they had better fundamental skills. We just had less experience, but these kids are competitive athletes. They bought into the system and kept working hard."
Although the HHS girls ended the season with two tough losses, a 7-6 setback to eventual sectional champ Montclair in the semifinals and a 13-9 loss to B-R a Skyland Conference battle, Murrin took great pride in the 2007 campaign.
"That fire and that wave that we were riding just went out," Murrin said. "It’s a hard thing to do. We just didn’t play our game. We ran out of gas in that game against Montclair, but you can’t let that take away from what we accomplished all season."

