Senior hits milestone as Raider girls lacrosse heads to SCT
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Erika Cavallo’s goal in overtime helped the Hillsborough High School girls lacrosse team hold off Pingry, 9-8, Saturday.
It was another big goal in the career of the Raiders senior who has been as reliable a goal scorer as they have had. On Monday, she surpassed 200 career goals with three goals and an assist in the Raiders’ 8-7 win over Hunterdon Central.
”Erika has been incredible throughout her four years,” said HHS head coach Beth Murrin after her team improved to 9-6. “She’s continued to improve and tries to be a team leader and welcomes that. Last year and this year, she’s been an incredible asset to our team, not just in goal scoring, but in maintaining possession and ball control. She’s big on the draws too. It’s the bottom 70 yards of the field, she has to be a major dominating player. She welcomes that role.”
Cavallo can celebrate being one of the rare high school athletes to score 200 career goals. It’s a mark she was looking forward to passing after pulling within two goals in Saturday’s game.
”I just go into the games and play my game,” said the dynamic attack. “If it comes to me, it comes to me. I’m not trying to force any shots to get my 200th. We have an exciting game against Central. It’s always in the back of my head, but winning and playing as team is always more important to me.”
Being a part of the Raiders has been important to Cavallo, more than any individual goals. It was a milestone she was hoping for, but it wasn’t her primary focus as she looks to finish her scholastic career well.
”Obviously I’d love to get my 200th goal,” she said. “I see that coming and would like to push to get there. I’d like to be in the county final, facing one of the great teams in our county and conference. Being on the Hillsborough team, it’s a great team, and being on it is a great feeling.”
That Cavallo is such a great goal scorer is no accident. She’s very goal oriented, and fulfilled one dream earlier this year when she signed a Letter of Intent to continue her career at Towson University next year.
”I am extremely excited,” Cavallo said. “They just pulled out another CAA championship. I’m really looking forward to getting up there and proving myself and hopefully getting playing time.
”It’s exciting. I want to see what I can learn from it. There’s a whole different experience from high school to college. It’s a whole different team and how they play. I’ll see how I adjust to it.”
This year has been an adjustment for Cavallo and her teammates. Her running mate, Kristina Dunphy graduated, and more of the offensive load was forced onto her shoulders.
”I felt she was my wingman,” Cavallo said. “We worked well together. Watching her and all the other girls, I knew coming into the season I’d have a leadership role and have to stay positive off and on the field. It’s tough but we have to keep everyone motivated to do well.”
On the field, defenses are geared up to stop Cavallo, though that hasn’t been easy. Only once has a team held her under three goals in a game.
”Last year, I’ll be honest, Kristina Dunphy drew a lot of attention,” Cavallo said. “A lot of teams knew me this year, and knew I wanted to go to the cage. I do feel I’m kind of the go-to person. Teams say, we have to watch out for (No.) 10. If they face-guard me, I have the chance to get more assists.”
Hillsborough has tried to take pressure off individual play this year with a new offense. The offense relies on motion and sharing the ball to avoid getting stagnant and watching one player have to do it all.
”We introduced this new motion attack this year,” Murrin said. “For everyone, it’s brand new, even players that are back. It’s taken us time. When we played on Saturday, our ball movement and running of the offense was the best it’s been. Now we need to combine it with going to the cage at the right time.”
The Raiders are confident that they are starting to put everything together at the right time. The offense is picking up the new attack plan, and at the other end, the Raiders are more solidified.
”I definitely feel like the last week and a half we’ve been taking these steps forward,” Murrin said. “Defensively, things are definitely coming together. We’ve changed our lineup and tried different things. We’ve solidified our defense at this point. We have two defenses and we’re using them both. I’m very happy with that.”
The Raiders closed out their Skyland Conference schedule on Monday, and now they gear up for the Somerset County Tournament. Hillsborough anticipates hosting Pingry today in the SCT first round. It’s the same Pingry team that has taken them to overtime twice this year, including last Saturday’s meeting.
”It was a really hard game,” Cavallo said. “It was really good win to pull out of that. It was like the last time we played them.
”I guess it’s just the competitiveness with the two teams, she added. “We’ve always been competitive with them.”
Gianna Napoletano had the other overtime goal for the Raiders. Sarah Fenwick made 12 saves and the balance was there on offense with Megan Muller, Amanda Muller, Lauren Belskie and Alex DeGaris all scoring goals for HHS. Danielle Fanizzi had an assist as well.
”I think we have a really good team,” Cavallo said. “We play hard. We click together, it just flows. We need to keep each other motivated. We’re going to into conference and county playoffs. We’ll see what happens from there.”
The Raiders have shown steady improvement, and that improvement will have to continue through the counties.
”The thing that will allow us to be most successful and knock off these teams that beat us earlier, it’s putting 50 minutes together,” Murrin said. “When we were playing at our best, even when we didn’t have everything down, we were playing even games, just not for these chunks of time.”
The county tournament will give the Raiders a chance to show they can put a full game together. Their losses have come to Somerset County teams that will be potential foes if they can advance beyond today.
”Right now, of course, we’d love to have a couple more wins,” Cavallo said. “North Hunterdon and Bridgewater are two extremely competitive teams. We’d like to see Ridge again. We have Pingry again (today). I like where we are now. We’ve come a long way. We lost a couple key players. I think if we keep each other motivated, we’ll play well.
”We’d love to pull out some wins against some teams we’ve lost to. Going to counties and conferences, it’s something you can really remember. I think we have the drive to do it. We just have to bring our A game to every game and fight and be competitive.”
Cavallo is one of eight seniors who is trying to make a big push to finish their careers with something memorable. Cavallo is driven to do well down the stretch.
”I really think coming into this year, some people look at senior year and think, I could slack off, I could do this, or that,” she said. “Everything I do in practices and games, I think about the next level. I think about improving all the skills I can so I can get to the next level and be successful.”
Cavallo knows it will be competitive for playing time next year at the Division I college level. Playing in an even bigger role this year for the Raiders is helping to line her up for that challenge.
”I really think what I’ve taken from Hillsborough is I’ve seen a lot of confidence in my stick skills,” Cavallo said. “I’ve gained skills. I’ve gained strength. The mental aspect, my coach pushes us to think about what we’re doing at that moment, and also off the field. You have to want to be extremely competitive and want to win every time you get out on that field.”