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Details of Game #24: May 31, 2012
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Moorestown 13 - Mendham 8 (Playoffs)
Despite being down 3-0 and getting killed on draw control 17-6, Moorestown managed to come back and beat a great Mendham team 13-8 behind the incredible play of goalie Amanda Currell and her 13 saves.
The game had all the makings of a blowout in Mendham's favor. What team has ever come back from from a three goal hole and cannot get the ball? Moorestown found a way. The Quakers faith in one another, chipping away with defensive stop after defensive stop, whether it was Megan Kelly stripping the ball away from a Mendham attacker or Currell coming up with not only huge saves but the composure to make effortless clears each time.
Haleigh Dalmass led the offensive barrage with her much needed five goal effort. Steph Toy willed the Quakers back from an early deficit with three goals until the Minutemaids decided to face guard her. Marie McCool added "only" two goals but was all over the field in transition and was a one v one threat each time the ball was in her stick. Melanie Becker and Anne Keim did a great job of matching up defensively with Mendham's unquestioned leader Aly Messinger and slowed her down after her early exploits. Marissa Randazzo and Elizabeth Johnson came up with late game heroics getting several key ground balls on contested shots.
In all 17 girls rotated on the warm turf at Hunterdon Central and eventually Mendham wore down, taking rushed shots on isolated dodges to goal only to be thwarted time after time by Currell.
Another key was the Quakers ability to play great defense in two man down, yellow card situations when Kelly and Toy were whistled for a push and a questionable stick check into the body. Mendham was athletic and well coached and made for the toughest quarterfinal game of the day......something that will certainly help Moorestown going forward on the quest for another TOC crown.