Ballard's OT goal carries Chatham to MCT crown

MONTVILLE – Junior midfielder Bridget Ballard scored with 28 seconds remaining in the second overtime to lead the top-seeded Chatham girls lacrosse team over No. 2 Mountain Lakes 7-6 in the Morris County Tournament final on Saturday.

The Cougars won their fourth overall title and first since 2012. The Lakers were on the hunt for their third-straight MCT crown.

"It was a great feeling, it was amazing," said Ballard, who was named the tournament MVP. "I just kind of shot it, it was a lucky shot."

With seven seconds remaining in regulation Ballard scored and Chatham thought it was the game-winner, but Ballard was called for a charge, the goal was waved off and the game went to overtime. With 1:11 left in the second OT, Julia DiSalvio forced Mountain Lakes to turn it over, which set up Ballard for the winning goal.

Mountain Lakes took four shots in overtime compared to the Cougars' one, but it was the one that mattered.

"We knew we had to come out strong because they were coming back to win again for counties and they wanted revenge from the first game of the season so we knew we had to come out with fire, they were going to come out with fire but we knew we were going to win and we did, I'm so proud of us," Chatham goalie Gislina Saul said.

Both teams appeared evenly matched throughout the first 25 minutes and the game was tied 3-3 at the half. Maggie O'Neill scored less than four minutes into the second half to put Chatham up 4-3 but a goal from the Lakers' Sarah Bedard retied it 4-4 with 19:34 left.

"We weren't really concerned," Ballard said. "We just knew we had to step it up a little bit more because we know Mountain Lakes has a tendency to come back when they're down so we knew we had to come out even stronger than we did in the beginning and I think we did that well."

Zoe Kraus scored on an assist from Abby Morgan to give the Cougars a 5-4 advantage with 18:55 left and Ballard scored her 100th career goal with 16:42 to play to put Chatham ahead 6-4.

"I knew I was close, I didn't know how close until everyone came up to me and told me, but it was really cool," Ballard said. "It's incredible, I always hoped that I could reach 100 goals, it was my goal to do it and to do it in a game like this is indescribable, I'm so happy."

A free position goal from Charley Orner with 14:46 left pulled Mountain Lakes to within one, 6-5, and Treweeke scored her second of the game with 3:24 to go to tie the game 6-6.

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: 973-428-6674; lknego@gannetnj.com