PRINCETON: Stuart’s last rally denied

Tartans, PDS finish as state finalists

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   After a remarkable comeback season, it didn’t seem like too much to ask the Stuart Country Day School lacrosse team for one more rally.
   Barely five minutes into the second half of the Prep B state championship Monday, Stuart found itself trailing Morristown-Beard, 7-4. Gone was the momentum from scoring the last two goals of the first half against Mo-Beard was gone, and the Tartans were facing uphill odds to fend off the impending stall.
   Just as it had done in a rough start to the year, the Tartans rallied in a big way. Stuart scored four straight goals to take the lead, only their second of the day since three minutes into the game when it was 1-0.
   Ultimately, the Tartans ran out of time for one final answer as Morristown-Beard took the lead four more times, the final time with 31 seconds left to repeat as state champions, 12-11, over Stuart. The Tartans had two shots in the final 1:50 before Mo-Beard scored the game-winner.
   ”We got the draw and we had the ball in the hands of the people we wanted the ball in the hands of,” said Stuart head coach Sara Wagner. “Give them credit for making the big stops and coming up with the saves.”
   The loss ends a big comeback year for the Tartans. They were 7-8 in an injury-riddled 2009, and after losing their first two games of 2010 they won 14 of their next 17.
   ”I’m happy with the way our season went this year,” Wagner said. “We had some great wins and just really gutsy performances. We were down to PDS and fought back in that one. And we fought back today without Amanda (Curnan). I think we end up 14-5 and that’s a great season here. Hopefully the girls will see that after the week and they can look back on it proudly.”
   Three of the Tartans’ losses came at the hands of Prep A finalists Princeton Day School and Peddie. In the A final, the Falcons topped PDS, 11-9, Monday, a score much closer than their 18-9 win in the season opener. The Panthers scored the final four goals of the championship game.
   ”The kids didn’t quit today,” said PDS head coach Jill Thomas after her team finished 14-4. “We were in until the end. That says a lot. They beat us Mar. 31, 2010, 18-9. It wasn’t even a game. We were the No. 6 seed and made it to the finals, having defeated Kent Place and Oak Knoll to get there. Oak Knoll has previously won the last five Prep A championships.”
   Carly O’Brien had five goals and two assists for the Panthers. Caitlin Shannon had three goals and Sydney Jenkins had a goal and assist for Thomas’s team that showed improvements through the year.
   ”Poise, confidence, they were playing at the next level,” Thomas said. “Coming back to play Peddie like that, they did pretty well.”
   Stuart also has a season to be proud of, led by a group of five seniors. Sarah Caswell, Amanda Curnan, Sarah Schulte and Kara Weeks have been four-year members of the varsity, while Marielle Mahan has been with the Tartans for three seasons.
   ”They work well together,” Wagner said. “I think they were proud of what they accomplished. The five of them are very proud of what they did this year, but I think overall, they did a lot for Stuart and they’re proud of what they’ve done for four years.”
   Both Curnan and Weeks missed last year’s championship game with injuries. On Monday, Curnan went down 12 minutes into the game with a knee injury and did not return.
   ”Not having Amanda killed our transition,” Wagner said. “That kills us. She’s huge in the transition offensively and defensively. And she’s so quick. When I was thinking about the game and worrying about certain things, I thought, but we have Amanda. She just adds something on the field. She’s savvy. She never quits and she’s able to come up with loose balls. When she went down, really in pain, that changed our game.”
   Caswell made 14 saves in her final game, and helped to deny Mo-Beard a bigger advantage in the second half.
   ”The best thing they did was shoot and Dewey was able to make the saves,” Wagner said.
   Stuart’s offense rode the Weeks-Schulte tandem that has come on strong this season. The senior combo accounted for the Tartans’ first three goals before the half as well as the first six of the second half. Schulte finished with six goals and two assists, the final one, a gorgeous feed to Ani Hallowell for her second goal of the game with 3:47 to play. It was the Tartans final goal. Weeks added three goals and five assists, all of them going to Schulte.
   ”I think Kara and Sarah like to do that.” Wagner said. “The other girls respect that. We had a couple great goals off that today. We had some other combinations too. Amanda and Maddie (Copeland), that developed through the season.”
   In the second half, Weeks also took the draws for the Tartans, who won eight of the final 14. Their difficulty came when they turned the ball over, either in their offensive end for Mo-Beard’s quick-strike transition or on the clear after a Caswell save. The Tartans had seven second-half turnovers that cut into their comeback.
   ”We knew draw control was key,” Wagner said. “We had draw control but we were sloppy with the ball sometimes.”
   It made the comeback a little tougher, and ultimately the Tartans came up one goal shy of a second straight trip to overtime for the Prep B championship.
   ”We did what we wanted to do,” Wagner said. “We just didn’t win.”