A return to glory

Shore’s Shana Fitzgerald puts a shot on net during the Blue Devils’ win in West Long Branch on Monday. It didn’t take long for the Shore Regional girls lacrosse team to reclaim its spot atop the Shore Conference.

After losing in the Shore Conference Tournament final last year as the two-time defending champs, the Blue Devils entered Monday’s final against top seed Jackson as somewhat of an underdog, despite riding the momentum that comes with a 12-game winning streak.

And when Jackson came out a bit flat, the Blue Devils jumped on the opportunity to regain its title as the Shore’s top team, beating the Jaguars, 8-7, in a classic matchup of two championship-caliber squads.

“This one’s the best, Shore head coach Chris Raichle said after the game.”Nobody expected much from us this year. They had us ranked as high as ninth at one point, so to do this is great.”

Raichle disputed the notion that the Blue Devils were underdogs on Monday.

“We didn’t think that way,” he said. “Everybody else did, but we had confidence in ourselves.”

The Jaguars may have been among those not expecting such a championship effort from Shore.

“We started off slowly against them and fell behind early,” Jackson coach Lori Johnson said. “They have a really experienced club. Just about every one of those girls has played in a title game of some sort. They are used to handling the pressure. Our slow start to the game really put us in a hole.”

It marks the third time Shore Regional has knocked off Jackson in the SCT championship game.

“No question, it is disappointing to lose to them again,” Johnson said. “They seem to have our number.”

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY AND JEFF GRANIT staff Above, Shore’s Jenna Martino tries to avoid a cross-check, while above left, Shore goalie Christine Latteri makes one of several key saves down the stretch to help preserve the Blue Devils’ 8-7 lead in Monday’s Shore Conference Tournament championship game at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. Jackson took a short-lived 1-0 lead at the start of the game. But Shore Regional’s offense exploded for four unanswered goals to build a three-goal cushion.

“We came out and got the early lead, and sat on the one-goal lead,” Johnson said. “You can’t afford to do that against a team like Shore. They are a confident club. They just kept working until they created some scoring chances for themselves. We needed to use that first goal as a momentum builder.”

With Jenna Schauder scoring back-to-back goals, and Shana Fitzgerald and Lauren Woodie (two goals) also finding the back of the net, Shore led 5-3 at intermission.

Jackson played catch-up the entire way. Three times in the second half, the Jags cut the deficit to one goal. Jackson, however, could not register the tying score.

Shore continued to respond to Jackson’s comeback effort, as Martino added her third goal of the game in the second period, before Fitzgerald finished the Blue Devils’ scoring with her second and third goals, the latter of which proved to be the game-winner.

Jackson had three good scoring opportunities in the final minute of the game, but failed to capitalize, as Shore’s junior goalie, Christine Latteri made one clutch save after another to preserve the win.

She came up huge for us there,” Raichle said. “She made three point-blank saves in the last 30 seconds.”

Those last 50-plus seconds seemed to never end for the Shore faithful, but once the finals seconds ticked away, the Blue Devils were celebrating once again

Not it’s on to the state tournament, where the Blue Devils will likely not be taken so lightly coming in.

“We’ve got as good a shot as anybody in that bracket,” Raichle said.

You won’t get an argument from the Jaguars.

— Vin Rapolla