Dellavia, McCabe Lift Madison to County Title

Lexi Dellavia scored twice to lead the top-seeded field hockey team to a 3-1 win over No. 2 West Morris Central Saturday at Boonton to capture the Morris County Tournament championship. It was the Dodgers' fifth title in the last six years.

In short

Madison came out dominating the first 15 minutes, moving freely within its offense. Dellavia put in the game's first goal at the 12:59 mark off an assist from Rachel Alvey.

But West Morris showed that it deserved to be in the championship and at the 8:45 mark, Erin Gutkind fired in a rebounded shot to knot the score at 1.  Gutkind seemed to everywhere on the field, stopping the Madison offense and leading West Morris into the Madison zone.  But in the second half, Dellavia scored her second goal on an assist from Michelle Montagna at 14:44 to put Madison in the lead at 2-1.  West Morris did not go down easy, out-shooting Madison 17-9.  A goal from Madison's Skyler Oates with 3:42 left in the game sealed the victory.

Dodger of the game

Caroline McCabe—McCabe stopped the West Morris attacks including 17 shots on goal and 14 penalty corners. For her efforts, McCabe was named defensive player of the game.

Key performers

Lexi Dellavia (Madison), two goals; Tori Ellis (Madison), controlled the middle of the field offensively and defensively; Skyler Oates (Madison), one goal; Erin Gutkind (West Morris), one goal and named offensive player of the game.

They said it

"It was a good game.  I am very proud of them. The game was up and down, but it was who finished that made the difference. I think at the end we opened the field up a little bit and we set up some really nice plays that scored the two goals."—Madison head coach Ann Marie Davies

"I was so surprised, I said, 'Wait, did we just win?' It was awesome. We are two really great teams. We got a little flustered in the first half and they came down and scored a goal. We settled back down and took the game from them."—Tori Ellis