It was only appropriate that a senior shined on Senior Night for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ lacrosse team.
Prior to their matchup against Montgomery High School, 11 graduating seniors from the Bridgewater-Raritan girls’ lacrosse team were honored: players Ella Daehnke, Emma Ciocon, Allie Prickett, Isabella Tai, Sophia Krause, Sophie Levin, Lily Korsun, Charlotte Slye, Breelyn Myers, Karly Perez, and team statistician Ava Mobus.
It took just under 11 minutes for Ciocon, a captain of both the field hockey team and girls ' lacrosse team, to connect on her first five goals and help No. 12-ranked Bridgewater-Raritan (9-1) reach double digits in the first quarter alone against Montgomery (7-4).
Ciocon was also one of three members of the Class of 2025 to collect a hat trick on Senior Night, and she fittingly fired in the game’s final goal as time expired to punctuate her team’s 17-7 victory over Montgomery on Tuesday, April 22, at John Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater.
“It is really about being there for your teammates, being a leader, being someone they can look up to, and being someone they can turn to if they need anything,” reflected after the win by Ciocon talked about the leadership traits she brought from field hockey in the fall to girls’ lacrosse in the spring. “You always want to be there to support them, so we try to bring a positive and uplifting environment here.”
Ciocon ended her day with six goals, one assist, three ground balls, six draw controls, and one forced turnover on the opposite end of the field. Just another day in the office for Ciocon, whose final goal of Senior Night was good for No. 250 of her career and ended her evening with an average of 4.7 goals scored per game by herself this season.
Daehnke, who also served as a captain on the field hockey team with Ciocon in the fall, tallied three goals and one assist with a forced turnover. Fellow fall and spring teammate Prickett: one of the Panthers’ captains this spring, along with Ciocon, Daehnke, and Slye, delivered four first-half goals and one assist to go with two ground balls.
All three of them, along with their fellow seniors, however, immediately recognized another teammate’s milestone prior to their postgame meeting and Senior Night celebration. Junior goalie Brooke Pino not only stopped six shots for Bridgewater-Raritan in relief of Perez, who started and made one save in a game when the Panthers' offense was in complete control of possession right out of the gate.
Pino’s fourth save of the night late in the second half was good for career save No. 100.
Like they did with Catanzaro when she reached 300 career points in Bridgewater Raritan's 15-2 victory over Phillipsburg High School earlier this month, Pino’s teammates appeared to hold up a congratulatory poster on the sideline the moment the milestone was reached.
Immediately after the game, they all posed for pictures together with the aforementioned poster along with three balloons: one ‘1’, and two ‘0’s, to further commemorate the achievement.
“They are just an awesome group of kids all around as players and as people,” praised Bridgewater-Raritan Coach Jaimie Peterson. “I actually coached most of them on [junior varsity] their freshman year, so they’ve had me for the past four years in some capacity. They are just a strong, talented, close group of girls, and they just get the job done together. They know how to play with each other and are a really special group.”
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan (9-1, 2-0) is a Skyland Conference Delaware Division matchup at North Hunterdon Regional High School (1-6, 0-2) at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 24. The Panthers will then square off in a massive rivalry game at fifth-ranked Pingry School (7-1, 1-1) at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, in Basking Ridge.