Madison Boys Lax Cruises Past W. Deptford In States

When the NJSIAA tournament brackets were released, the Madison boys lacrosse team found out that their road to a state title would likely run through Kinnelon, the team responsible for two of the Dodgers' four losses this season.

"Third time's a charm," said senior attacker Colin McLinden.

Of course, to get one more shot at the Colts, there was the small matter of taking care of 22nd-seeded West Deptford Tuesday. But if the Dodgers were distracted by looking ahead to the next round, it didn't show.

McLinden tallied a season high nine points - scoring three goals and adding six assists, all in the first half - to lead sixth-seeded Madison to a 14-4 win over West Deptford in the first round of the NJSIAA Public Group II tournament Tuesday at Madison High School. Charlie Olendorp added a hat trick of his own, while three other players scored twice for Madison (14-4).

As a reward, Madison will get its third crack at Kinnelon, the No. 3 seed, Thursday afternoon (5 p.m., at Kinnelon) in the Public Group II quarterfinals. Kinnelon won the regular-season meeting, 10-8, on April 22, and shut down Madison's offense in a 9-4 win in last week's Morris County Tournament final.

"They've beaten us twice, and we're going to have to come out and play hard," said Madison coach Mark Sweeney. "We were a little tentative on our shots last time. We need to let it rip and get after them. There's no tomorrow for us in that game."

The Colts knocked off No. 14 North Warren, 14-4, to advance to the quarterfinals.

The Dodgers came out determined to prevent any possible upset bid by West Deptford (8-7), who beat 11th-seeded Glen Rock Saturday in the preliminary round. Playing in a driving rainstorm, Will Stuhler scored on a feed from McLinden just over a minute into the game. It was all one-way traffic from the opening face-off, with the Dodgers controlling possession for most of the first quarter and turning that into a 4-1 lead.

"It was good to get such a good start," Sweeney said. "Sometimes the favorite in these games comes out flat, and the other team puts a few goals in, and anything can happen. But we jumped on them, and they took control."

Through it all, McLinden was the facilitator and the distributor. He scored two goals in seven seconds - the second coming off a face-off ground ball pickup and an immediate dash to goal - and assisted on the Dodgers' other two first-quarter goals. McLinden spread the ball around effectively, sending his six assists to four different players. All four - Olendorp, Stuhler, Mike Clemente and Billy Battaglia - tallied two goals each in the first half.

"I don't know how to explain it," McLinden said. "It's kind of my thing. (Setting up my teammates) is what I do."

McLinden won 12 ground balls, many of those on face-offs, helping keep Madison on almost continuous offense for the first quarter and a half. He assisted on four more goals in the second period as the Dodgers cruised to an 11-2 halftime lead. At that point, Madison had outshot West Deptford, 19-7.

"We're trying to just possess the ball, and work for the perfect shot," McLinden said. "We did a good job getting the face offs, and once we got them we circled around waiting for the perfect shots to open up."

The pace of the game slowed down in the second half, as Madison's second line gradually entered the game to finish things off.

Goalies Ryan Colwell and Brett Anton combined to stop 11 shots for the Dodgers. Meanwhile, Christian Mazzochi picked up eight ground balls, while Austen Lein and Billy Nadeau added six each.


BOX SCORE
West Deptford    1  1  1  1  -     4
Madison                4  7  1  2  -  14

GOALS
WD- Nick Reardon 2, Eric Gendron 2
MAD- Colin McLinden 3, Charlie Olendorp 3, Will Stuhler 2, Mike Clemente 2, Billy Battaglia 2, Austin Lein 1, George Thompson 1

ASSISTS
WD- Ryan Monaghan 1, Garret Evans 1, Nick Band 1
MAD- Colin McLinden 6, Charlie Olendorp 2, Austin Lein 1, Billy Battaglia 1, Mike Clemente 1

SHOTS ON GOAL
West Deptford    3  4  4  4  -  15
Madison              10  9  6  4  -  29