Lenape

The Inquirer TOP 10     BOYS' LACROSSE Team   Record Records are through Tuesday. Last week's rankings in parentheses.   1. St. Augustine (1)   10-4 2. Moorestown (2)   8-4 3. Shawnee (5)   10-5 4. Haddonfield (3)   11-3 5. Lenape (4)   9-4 6. Eastern (6)   10-3 7. Kingsway (7)   11-4 8. Seneca (8)

There were plenty of goals illustrating the scrappy, hard-nosed abandon of the Clearview girls' lacrosse team. But the ultimate symbol might have been the freshman who ended up being the game's hero - and not just because she netted the winner with 1 minute, 2 seconds left in regulation. Clearview midfielder Gianna Bowe's go-ahead score helped seal a 10-8 win over Lenape on Tuesday in the South Jersey Group 4 semifinals. But Bowe, a freshman midfielder standing a littler taller than 5-foot, was a warrior in the draw circle.

The goals weren't pretty anywhere but on the scoreboard. Top-ranked Lenape scored all its goals off scrambles after re-starts en route to a 3-0 victory over No. 4 Paul VI in an Olympic Conference girls' soccer game Wednesday night. Junior midfielder Courtney Kovac scored twice and Alexus Cooper added the third goal for Lenape (6-0) before a crowd of around 500 spectators under the lights on the Indians' football field. "They are phenomenal on re-starts," Paul VI coach Keith Walters said of Lenape.

The Lenape girls' soccer team took shot after shot on the Randolph goal in yesterday's Group 4 state championship game. But the Indians couldn't convert enough of those chances as they fell, 2-1, to the Rams in overtime. "It gets frustrating," said Lenape sophomore midfielder Jamie Weist. "Because we just kept putting it on them. But I thought we played well overall. " Lenape kept the Rams on the defensive through regulation play. The Indians took 16 shots to Randolph's four.

As one of his assistant coaches addressed Washington Township's players after a grueling 22-16 win yesterday, Tom Brown wore a stern look that said that there still are many, many yards to go in this football season. This much Brown could not deny, though: The Minutemen's start couldn't have been scripted better. A week ago, Township beat Cherokee, the defending Olympic Conference American Division champion. Yesterday, the team ranked eighth in South Jersey by The Inquirer went on the road and defeated Lenape, one of this year's favorites in the Olympic American.

When Natalia Torosian and her Lenape teammates traveled to Bishop Eustace yesterday for an Olympic Conference interdivisional soccer match, the game took on a greater dimension. It wasn't about The Inquirer's No. 1-ranked team in South Jersey - Lenape - taking on No. 5 Eustace. It wasn't about the American Division, which Lenape leads, and the National, in which the Eustace Crusaders are undefeated. It was personal. The players from both high schools are on the same club teams and are highly competitive.

Break out the hydrogen peroxide, the Lenape wrestling team is the Olympic Conference American Division champion. The Lenape coaching staff will have a different look after the Indians won the final four bouts - three by fall - and recorded a thrilling 33-32 victory over host Washington Township yesterday. Its the first divisional title since 1997 for Lenape, which has won its last 10 in a row and improved to 17-1. "I'm going to have to hide the paper [today] from my wife, but sooner or later she's going to know," said Lenape coach Russ Minuto, who said he and his assistants had promised the team they would go blond if they won a title.

Carolyn Griffin is fast emerging as Cherokee's Iron Lady. Griffin, the Chiefs' No. 1 pitcher, won her third game in four days Thursday by throwing a three-hit shutout against visiting Lenape in an Olympic Conference American Division softball game. The senior also slammed two doubles, one of which scored a run in a 3-0 victory as Cherokee improved to 3-0 overall, 2-0 in the division. "I have two so far, yesterday and today," Griffin said about shutouts, the first of which was a 4-0 win over Cherry Hill East.

Entering the season, there were several questions concerning the Lenape girls' soccer team, with the leading one pertaining to offense. That there were several questions might seem odd since the Indians have been state champions and The Inquirer's No. 1 ranked team in each of the previous seasons. Yet with serious losses to graduation and with the team having to play without all-South Jersey forward Katie Rigby, who is out for the year with a knee injury, Lenape faced more doubt entering the season than in the previous three.

The fact that there was not one truly dominant South Jersey baseball team certainly made things difficult in compiling the rankings. The final choice for No. 1 came down to the two teams that played for the South Jersey Group 4 championship - Washington Township and Lenape. No. 3 Gloucester Catholic could also make an argument, especially since the Rams beat Washington Township earlier in the season, but they also lost to Millville in the semifinals of the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic, the tournament that Lenape eventually won. Washington Township (18-12)

Highlights of Monday's contests can be found at: www.philly.com/rally Baseball CENTRAL JERSEY GROUP 2 FIRST ROUND Bordentown 10, Hillside 0 SOUTH JERSEY GROUP 1 FIRST ROUND Gateway 9, Palmyra 0 Audubon 16, LEAP Academy 0 Pitman 4, Cedar Creek 3 Glassboro 5, Schalick 2 Pennsville 8, Gloucester 2 Maple Shade 9, Salem 0 Wildwood 5, Cape May Tech 2 ...

There were plenty of goals illustrating the scrappy, hard-nosed abandon of the Clearview girls' lacrosse team. But the ultimate symbol might have been the freshman who ended up being the game's hero - and not just because she netted the winner with 1 minute, 2 seconds left in regulation. Clearview midfielder Gianna Bowe's go-ahead score helped seal a 10-8 win over Lenape on Tuesday in the South Jersey Group 4 semifinals. But Bowe, a freshman midfielder standing a littler taller than 5-foot, was a warrior in the draw circle.

  BOYS' LACROSSE Team Record Records are through Tuesday. Last week's rankings in parentheses. 1. St. Augustine (1) 10-5 2. Moorestown (2) 11-4 3. Shawnee (3) 12-5 4. Kingsway (7) 13-5 5. Eastern (6) 12-5 6. West Deptford (9) 13-5 7. Haddonfield (4) 12-4 8. Washington Twp. (10) 8-9 9. Seneca (8) 11-4 10. Lenape (5)

Third-year coach Michelle Schlichtig and the Haddon Heights softball team completed their first 16-0 run through Colonial Conference competition on Thursday, with a 15-3 romp at Gateway. Shayla Sweeney struck out 10 over five innings and batted 2 for 3 with two RBIs and one run scored, while Chelsea Thomas (3 for 5, two RBIs) and Mattie McCleery (2 for 3, RBI) each scored three times for the Liberty Division champion Garnets (21-5 overall). Also in the Colonial, Audubon locked up the Patriot Division crown with a dramatic 5-3, 10-inning victory at Overbrook.

For much of the game, Lenape goalie Eric Leonard was pacing back and forth in front of the net. Yelling. Barking orders. Sounding more like a coach than a 5-foot-5 junior goalie. A typical call from Leonard to his teammates would sound borderline threatening. "If they don't do what I say, I guess I have to raise my voice," he said with a smile. He may have had only five saves. But that doesn't mean Leonard wasn't active in his Lenape boys' lacrosse team's 13-3 home win over Absegami Thursday in the first round of the Group 4 tournament.

The Inquirer TOP 10     GIRLS' LACROSSE Team   Record Records are through Tuesday. Last week's rankings in parentheses.   1. Moorestown (1)   16-0 2. Shawnee (2)   12-2 3. Lenape (4)   10-1 4. Washington Township (3)   10-3 5. Clearview (5)   12-4 6. Bishop Eustace (6)   11-2 7. Eastern (7)   8-6 8. Haddonfield (8)

An ecstatic Cherry Hill East girls' lacrosse team could hardly contain its emotions long enough to be congratulated by head coach Katie Boyle. When the coach finished addressing the team Wednesday, the Cougars collectively summed up the win: "Third time's a charm," they cheered. The team had just recorded an 11-9, double-overtime, season-defining upset of a Lenape team that had been riding high after, one game earlier, recording a season-defining upset of its own. "If we really wanted to show our potential, this was the team we needed to beat this season," said senior midfielder Becca Taub, who netted the winning goal.