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Sports

Cranford Hands Summit Girls Soccer First Loss of Season

Cougars win game 1-0.

The girls soccer game between Cranford and Summit appeared to be heading into overtime on Tuesday.

Both teams battled back and forth on the sunny Memorial Field but the Cougars kept the upper hand for most of the game. Summit increased its offensive pressure on Cranford in the second half as neither team could finish off their scoring opportunities.

As the final seconds ticked off, the ball dropped in front of Cranford forward Sarah Dowzycki and she dribbled it toward the Summit goal with three Hilltopper defenders in tow.

Dowzycki drove the ball to the right of Liz Cassin and just inside the post for the only goal of the game.

"I was just trying to look away from the goalie," she said. "I felt the girls on me and I was trying to keep the ball away from them."

During most of the game, Dowzycki, Jen Folger and Emily Lupin among the rest of Cranford's front line kept the ball in the Summit end as Cassin, defenders Kylie McKenna and Maddie Kaplan and Allie ReDavid kept the Lady Cougars away from scoring.

"I'm very happy with the girls. They were working hard," said Cranford head coach Jen Michewicz. "They maintained the pressure and it was a good one."

With the Cougars maintaining the play in the first half, Summit head coach Christine Bohan told her team that they should start moving the ball downfield.

"I told them to continue to play strong and to win the ball," said Bohan. "It was a good fight and a good game."

Cranford's win raised its record to 5-1-1. The Cougars also gave Summit's season record its first loss at 6-1.

Bohan said that Cranford was the best team they had faced in the early part of the 2009 season.

The two teams have a running rivalry. The Cougars clinched a narrow win against Summit in last year's county tournament. This season, Cranford enters the tournament as the fifth seed and Summit the sixth seed.

The Cougars host 12th-seeded Kent Place on Saturday at 2 p.m. and the Hilltoppers host Union Catholic, also on Saturday at 2 p.m.

It appears that both teams will probably not face each other since they are in opposite sides of the bracket. The two would have to run the gamut before facing each other in the Union County final. Cranford would first have to get past top-seeded Westfield while Summit would have to most likely leap over second-seeded Scotch Plains.

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