o round off a busy week for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School senior Class of 2026, the Panthers’ seven graduating members of the field hockey team were honored prior to their regular-season finale victory, 3-2, over crosstown rival Somerville High School Thursday, October 30, at John Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater.
Prior to Bridgewater-Raritan’s victory, which improved it to a 10-7-1 record to conclude a successful regular season, Zania Ahmed, Frieda Hoffman-Sehringer, Mia James, Brooke Lazar, Jessica Munro, Lauren Rissmeyer, and Julia Rondinone were recognized during a pregame ceremony for the newly-crowned Skyland Conference Raritan Division champions.
Four of these seven seniors found their way into the scorebook, including Hoffman-Sehringer (one goal, one assist), who fittingly tallied her first goal of the season on her Senior Night.
After Somerville opened the game’s scoring with 6:35 left in the first quarter, Hoffman-Sehringer knotted the score, 1-1, with 9:25 left in the second quarter before Ahmed (one goal) delivered the go-ahead goal with 1:46 left in the period to send the Panthers into halftime with a 2-1 lead.
Lazar (one goal) doubled Bridgewater-Raritan’s advantage to 3-1 with 12:59 left in the third quarter before Somerville answered with 7:34 left in the period to round out the game’s scoring. Trailing 3-2, the visiting Pioneers’ last opportunity to send the game into overtime was denied by the Panthers’ defense, and Bridgewater-Raritan’s performance was its 11th game decided by one-goal.
Rondinone (one assist) had the remaining point via her second-quarter assist for Bridgewater-Raritan.
The Panthers’ Senior Night victory improved their record to 6-5 in one-goal games to close out the regular season. Ahmed now leads Bridgewater-Raritan with 11 goals scored, and seven of the Panthers’ 10 victories have come in games she has scored at least once after she netted the go-ahead goal on Thursday evening.
Bridgewater-Raritan (10-7-1) was awarded the No. 9 seed in next week’s NJSIAA North New Jersey, Group 4, Field Hockey Tournament: its highest seed under the direction of third-year head coach Sami Strathern. The Panthers will travel to eighth-seeded Princeton High School (10-5) to launch the postseason at 2 p.m. Tuesday, November 4, in Princeton.
However, Bridgewater-Raritan won both of its previous two playoff openers on the road in upset fashion as its bracket’s No. 13 seed and No. 12 seed in the fall of 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Prior to the Panthers’ Senior Night victory, Bridgewater-Raritan also defeated East Brunswick High School, their bracket’s No. 2 seed, by a result of 3-2 in their regular-season meeting on Tuesday, October 28, in East Brunswick.
The winner of Tuesday afternoon’s first-round playoff matchup between the Panthers and Tigers will advance to the state sectional quarterfinals against either No. 16-seeded Mount Olive High School (5-11-1) or top-seeded Phillipsburg High School (12-8): the latter team also being ranked No. 22 overall in New Jersey.