E.B. field hockey team facing lofty expectations
8-3 Bears in third place in Greater Middlesex Conference
By Richard Jerome
Staff Writer

MARIE ORTIZ East Brunswick’s offensive leader, Janine McMillin, takes off with the ball during a recent game against Old Bridge.

By at least one measure, the East Brunswick High School field hockey team’s 2000 season has been a rousing success.

The Bears were 9-3 going into yesterday’s match with South Plainfield; aside from being a fine record under most any circumstances, that record means they’ve already guaranteed an improvement over last year’s 8-9 mark.

"As a team and individually, the girls are improving right on schedule," said Coach Cindi Todoroff, who handled the freshman team last fall.

The Bears, Todoroff points out, are a team without superstars. But their overall team play enables them to be competitive with just about any opponent.

MARIE ORTIZ East Brunswick’s Jen Wehinger gets set to make a pass as Old Bridge’s Holly Francy approaches during a recent game in East Brunswick.

"We have a very balanced forward line, a mobile midfield and a stingy defense," she said.

East Brunswick consists of a mixture of experienced upperclassmen, relatively inexperienced upperclassmen, and youngsters.

As Todoroff puts it, "We’re a combination of many teams."

Offensively, the scoring has been spread around. Senior forward Erin Balint, who made all-conference last year, and junior forward-midfielder Janine McMillin have both knocked in 10 goals, while junior forward Lauren Clark has added seven tallies.

All three players find themselves in the top seven in scoring in the Greater Middlesex Conference. McMillin (24 points) is second behind Piscataway’s senior standout Carly Campana (23 goals, four assists for 50 points), while Balint is tied for third (23 points) and Clark is in seventh (20 points).

One of the Bears’ newer sparkplugs is senior sweeper Shannon Miller, a soccer player who is in her first year of field hockey.

According to Todoroff, Miller’s play has helped the Bears get off to the fast start they needed to compete for the conference title.

"She’s an exceptional athlete," said Todoroff. "And as good as she is, her attitude is even better. Shannon has been a perfect fit for us."

As for other seniors, Anna Majszyk is on the forward line, along with Ewa Rakowski and Katharine Ho. Charlene Chen plays back, and Kelly Moore, another 12th-grader, is the goalkeeper.

Among juniors, Todoroff sends out Tara DeManzo, a midfielder, and Jamie Friedman, a midfielder and back.

The coach has a number of sophomores on the varsity, all of whom she is well-familiar with, having piloted them last year on the frosh squad.

The 10th-graders included midfielder Jennifer Wehringer; forward Sherry Liu; Alexandra Schmidt, a midfielder and back; midfielder Rachel Schneider; and substitute keeper Jackie Cancro.

In their last victory, the Bears edged Howell by a 3-2 margin, marking the first time EBHS has ever beaten that school.

Tomorrow, East Brunswick meets up with Metuchen, while on Friday the Bears have a contest with Union.

According to Todoroff, the Bears are on track to meet all of their goals for the year, although their toughest challenges are yet to come.

"Our goals are to get to the GMC finals and do well in the states," said Todoroff, who is assisted by Maricar Acab. "But the biggest thing is that the girls play consistently as a team and individually, and so far we’re seeing that all along the way."

At 8-3 coming into this week’s play, the Bears found themselves in third place in the conference, behind defending GMC champion Piscataway (8-1) and A.L. Johnson (7-0). But trailing closely behind is Old Bridge (5-2-2), Somerville (5-3) and Metuchen (6-4).

Piscataway has been the class of the field thus far, led by Campana who has dominated play throughout the year. Going into this week’s play, Campana has more than doubled the point totals of the area’s second-highest scorers.

And the Bears know that if they have any hopes of winning the conference title, they will likely have to beat Campana’s Chiefs at some point in the GMC tournament.

But they have a few important games left before they can start thinking about the tournament. After tomorrow’s game at Metuchen, and Friday’s game against Union (4-5-2), the Bears will travel to Old Bridge on Monday in what could be a very important game for both teams. The Knights, led by seniors Andrea Lepore (four goals, seven assists) and Dana Tinney (six goals, three assists), have played well thus far and are closely trailing the Bears for the third seed in the GMC tournament.

The Bears will host Middlesex on Wednesday before they begin their tournament play on Oct. 24. Following the tournament final, which is scheduled for Oct. 28, the Bears will close out their regular season by hosting Cranford on Halloween.

From there, it’s off to the state tournament, which will begin on Nov. 3.