The two top field hockey programs in the entire state of New Jersey were about to play for top honors at the Jersey Shore in the Shore Conference Tournament championship.
There was a lot of anticipation the Halloween morning of Saturday, October 31, 1987. The site was Toms River High School North and the two combatants -- No. 1 seed Shore Regional and No. 2 Toms River North -- came in with unbeaten records, the Blue Devils sporting an 18-0-1 record, the Mariners with a 16-0-2 record. In my mind and those who were going to be there to witness this 10 a.m. battle, something had to give.
So I left my parents' home at 8:55 in the morning to get there very early on this mid-50 degree morning under beautiful blue skies and sun. By the time I arrived at Toms River North 10 minutes later, I drove along the road the field hockey field was located right next to the school. Shore Regional had already been there warming up.
I got out of my car and walked onto the field to say hi to their long-time successful coach, Nancy Williams. We did a couple of minutes of pleasantries since I had known her for a couple of years now just talking about field hockey and her own team and her emotion going in.
Then I ask her, "How long have you been here for? This game isn't for another 50 minutes?"
"We got here about 20 minutes ago," she said. "Our bus driver is really fast."
Then, as if it was on cue, behind where we were standing, the school bus that brought the Blue Devils and Williams to the game came zooming behind us on that same road I came up moments earlier, hitting a speed bump pretty hard.
"See." she said.
Williams' Blue Devils could do no wrong throughout the entire 1980s decade. Their best team may have been the 1986 squad that won the state Group II title, led by two of the best players the program ever saw, Andrea Begel and Missy Paolantonio. But they had other great players on that team and they were back in this 1987 season. One of those players was Chris Tormey, who was the main distributor of the ball to the Blue Devils' attack. And their best player was senior Chris Wajda, a tall and powerful player from the point who could deliver a penalty corner shot and you'd know it was going to inflict harm with how hard she took it.
The Blue Devils were continuing to be dominant.
And that was what Toms River North was shooting for in this '87 season. The pieces were in place for what many close to field hockey and the program thought was a special year. There were plenty of seniors who provided leadership for the Mariners this particular season. That started with the program's heart and soul, four-year starting forward Kim Bush. She was on her way to an amazing final season with the Mariners, back to her scoring ways from the 1985 season when she put home 34 goals.
But Bush had some help on this team from a very strong senior class that included senior defenders Mary Bendel, Vicki Trotman and Sue Gerbino and two-way player Krista Saponara. Behind the seniors was an amazing group of juniors that included scorers Katie Vignevic, Christie Emmert and Lori Garrabrant, two-way standout Dawn Ostrowski and the final obstacle for the other team, dominant goalie Linda Kurtyka.
North's coach was Becky Miller, who like Williams, was a dominant winner herself in the sport's history. But unlike Williams, the one thing that eluded Miller was a state championship. Seven years earlier, North made it to the state Group IV final before losing the championship. This team had all the earmarks for a special season.
From in close, you can see the admiration between the two coaches. But when you put them both on the same field with their teams, you can see the fiery competitiveness of the two of them.
For the next 45 minutes before the game as I'm inside the gate of the field, people were lining up alongside the fences and in the small set of bleachers set up for those to sit down on this amazing day weather-wise ... and player-wise.
And from the moment the whistle was blown to start the game, the fans started getting into it. It was nonstop the entire first half, even if both teams looked like they were going through the motions because defense was dominating the day.
But the threats came from Shore Regional. They tested Kurtyka on a couple of occasions. The first came as Tormey came down the right side, weaving her way through Mariner defensive traffic. She threaded the needle to forward Barbara Krautheim for what might have been a perfect goal, but as Krautheim went to shoot, Kurtyka was there for the pad save. Later in the first half, Shore's Emily Bahrs had a good shot at the net, but she, too, was stopped on a pad save by Kurtyka. No one I ever saw used those blocker pads better than she did on a field hockey field.
Meanwhile, Shore's defense limited North to very few opportunities in the first half, keeping their distance from the high-powered North attack.
And so after 30 minutes, defense reigned and the game went scoreless. I remember sitting on Shore's bench where they were situated as coach Williams began talking to her players at the far end goal area. I looked at my notes -- very few scribbled down -- and figured that someone was going to make their mark in this game, but it may not be either Bush or Wajda, who had already beaten Bush's Shore area record for goals in a season by already scoring 36 times this season. It could be someone I least suspected who might deliver the goods at the right moment.
So both teams came away from their opposite ends after halftime talks and began the second half. North had a new strategy -- attack with more players. They were having a lot more ease playing on their thicker grass field than the Blue Devils were, Shoe used to playing on a lower-grass cut field. It was something Williams said later her players had a hard time adjusting to.
Finally, only 4:09 into the second half, we had our first score. Vignevic had the ball and no defenders in front of her after a Shore player tried to tap the ball away. That was bad news for goalie Caryn Goldman, who had the unenviable task of stopping Vignevic by herself. She came out second best as Vignevic fired a shot to the goalie's left side and into the net from close range, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
The ripples could be felt -- it was only the second goal the Blue Devils had allowed all season. But there was still 25:51 left in the game. That was plenty of time for the Blue Devils to adjust to what was not working and make some kind of a run.
North, however, wasn't having any of it. The defense that players like Bendel, Gerbino and Ostrowski provided was proving too much to Tormey, who had 24 assists going into the game, and Wajda, who was continually being frustrated by the Mariners.
With 22:24 left in regulation time, Williams called a timeout. She was getting on her players to get going, but was also encouraging them that if they can put some passes together and continue to put what pressure they could on North, good things would come out of it. So back after the timeout, the Blue Devils began to take over play, playing in North's territory. When a North defender was detected for a foul, a penalty corner was called.
This time, Tormey set up a beautiful pass to Wajda, who had the talent to stop the hard charging ball on a slightly bumpy North field and fire a shot to Kurtyka's right side to tie it up at 1-all.
All morning long, whatever penalty corners the Blue Devils were getting, Gerbino, whose nickname was "Turbo" for her all-out speed on those corners and stopping them, was putting a kibosh on. Not this one, though. The sound of the ball pounding the wooden bottom part of the goal resonated throughout the North complex.
With 20:15 left, the game now came down to who would blink first. Both sides had their moments of taking the ball into the other team's territory, but the last 20:15 would become a defensive game. No matter what any player did once they got into the other team's defensive side, the ball would be poked away by a defender or the goalie or would slice out of bounds. For all her greatness in the '87 season, Bush was having a hard time getting anything that looked like a possible score. It may have been the most frustrating game she played all year. Shore's defense was on point.
And so the clock got counted down to zero. Now it would be sudden death overtime deciding the championship. There would be two 10-minute overtime periods. Both sides would switch fields after the first 10-minute period.
Immediately, North was on the attack on Shore's defense and Goldman. The ball found its way to Saponara, who fired a shot that went wide of the mark. Minutes later, Saponara had another chance to finish the deal and give North the huge victory, but again, her shot went wide of the mark.
Nothing after 10 minutes. The teams switched sides.
North's defense continue to throttle Shore, which could only muster five shots on net the entire afternoon. Meanwhile, North had one last chance at Shore's net. This time it was Garrabrant who had the chance to play hero. She was on the side of the net, looking to stuff a loose ball behind Goldman, but the Shore goalkeeper put a blocker on her shot and the ball went out of the box.
That would be it. The last true opportunity for someone to play hero.
As the clock operator counted down the final seconds, it became inevitable this championship gave us everything, but one important element.
A winner.
The teams walked off the North field exhausted and disappointed. Eighty minutes of field hockey, some great skill and fantastic shot taking shown, and nothing came out of it other than both teams would be crowned as co-champions.
Just two years earlier on this same North field, both Shore and North battled it out for 80 minutes in a scoreless SCT final, but on that day, they had a one-on-one shotout and North prevailed, 3-2, in the shootout for the title. A year later, the Shore Conference voted to end that finish to a game since state championships are not decided in that manner.
So because of that ruling, neither team felt satisfied with the final outcome.
But the coaches were saying the right things at the end of the game to me.
"I think everyone played a great game and got some nice shots," Miller said. "I have nothing negative to say at all."
"I think if we played each other 10 times, we'd win five and they'd win five times," Williams said. "Both teams deserved to win the title. (North) moved the ball very well. They're a well-coached team."
North outshot Shore, 10-5, as Goldman made five saves and Kurtyka three. And though Shore did not win the title, the Blue Devils made it 44 straight games without a loss, breaking the Shore area mark they had from 1979-81.
And like that, it was over. The pomp and circumstance was nothing more than a sister-kissing exercise. I wanted more! Any fan of the sport, especially that year, wanted more. We paid our ticket for the rollercoaster ride and got nothing more than an occasional small up-and-down moment.
But you appreciated how great these two teams really were, especially at the defensive end. And both teams ultimately reached their state championship at Trenton State College on a bitterly cold Sunday, November 22. However, for Shore, it ended in an NJSIAA Group II loss to Delaware Valley High, ending that unbeaten streak at 47.
For North, it was the culmination of an amazing season. The Mariners held back Morristown, 2-1, to win the NJSIAA Group IV championship, the first in program history and the great payoff in the career of Miller, who started the program in 1969.
The Shore area was better for having Nancy Williams and Becky Miller coaching field hockey successfully every year during their tenures at their schools. They helped enhance the sport and put the Jersey Shore on the map. You really couldn't have one without the other.
In one of the most exciting field hockey seasons I ever witnessed, it was an honor to watch these two titans clash at their very best.
If only there had been a winner, though.
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