Bridgewater-Raritan shut out Ridgewood 2-0 to win the NJSIAA Public Tournament.
This matchup marked Ridgewood’s second straight appearance in the NJSIAA Public Finals, with last year’s leading to a 5-2 loss to Westfield.
Both Ridgewood, representing the north, and Bridgewater-Raritan, representing the south, were the one seeds in their sectional brackets.
This is the fourth time these two teams have faced off since 2011, with Ridgewood winning the past two matchups.
Ridgewood, as a team, skated on the ice confidently, with AJ and William LoSauro leading the team onto the ice, shooting flashy shots into the net during warmups.
Bridgewater-Raritan, on the other hand, had a nonchalant nature to it and looked ready to stand on business.
First Period:
The first period started with physical, heavy hits coming from both Ridgewood and Bridgewater-Raritan.
The hits from both sides were so massive that sticks were flying everywhere, including one into the stands.
If we didn’t see massive hits, we saw acrobatic saves coming from Oliver Grant and Justin Madison.
Both Ridgewood and Bridgewater-Raritan took turns applying pressure.
When Ridgewood applied pressure, we immediately saw Bridgewater-Raritan apply equal pressure right back at them.
Throughout the period, both sides made eye-opening saves, diving for the puck and even came up hitting the post, bouncing back into play.
William LoSauro saw two of his shots deflect off the iron in the first period, sliding out of reach.
With just over two minutes left, the Panthers began applying immense pressure. A shot deflected off the iron and onto the stick of Stanley Xenakis, who drained the first goal of the game into the back of the net.
Ridgewood applied pressure to end the first period, but Ridgewood did not score any goals.
The first period ended with a 1-0 score in Bridgewater-Raritan’s favor.
Second Period:
The second period started with Maroon pressure and stayed that way for most of the period.
Despite not scoring the entire period, Ridgewood had 13 shots on net in the second period alone.
Pucks continued to fly off the iron for William LoSauro, with him getting three off the iron in the first 16 minutes of the game.
Halfway through the period, you could see Ridgewood’s frustration, not able to get the puck in the next, mostly from AJ LoSauro, as he was suffocating sophomore goalie Justin Madison, and the play was called dead due to the net moving.
The pressure continued to be so crippling that Ridgewood goalie Oliver Grant did not see a shot come his way for the entire first half of the period.
With two minutes remaining, Bridgewater-Raritan broke out and applied some pressure with two shots on net.
After the second shot, Grant passed the puck out of the net and it was intercepted by Alex Kotelnikov, who passed to Stanely Xenakis, who scores his second goal of the game.
The clock ran down to end the second period 2-0 in favor of Bridgewater-Raritan.
Third Period:
Being behind, Ridgewood applied tons of pressure, amounting to over ten in the period, but all of them were met with a save from Justin Madison.
No matter the condition or amount of pressure that was tacked on, Madison would not let the puck in the net.
As the clock wound down Ridgewoods run at a state championship was coming to an end.
The once loud and confident student section soon died down with it as Justin Madison and Bridgewater-Raritan pitch a shutout.
The game’s MVP was awarded to Stanley Xenakis, who scored both goals for the Panthers.
“Yeah, it feels awesome that it’s forever, you know, it’s for our school and our coaches. Work gave us everything we needed, and we took it, and we’re state champions,” Xenakis said, “I’ll be able to look at this in 20 years, and I’ll never stop smiling.”
This will mark the final game on the ice for Penn State lacrosse commit AJ LoSauro, who is Ridgewood’s all-time leader in scoring. Other Ridgewood seniors include forwards Christian McCarthy, Spencer Pisnanont, and Goalie Oliver Grant.
On Bridgewater-Raritan’s side forwards Nicholas Hoff, Sebastian Raimondi, Alex Kotelnikov, and defenseman Matthew Harrison are all set to graduate this year.
