Long before she launched her prolific girls’ lacrosse career at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Giada Catanzaro stood on her team’s sidelines at John Basilone Memorial Field.
When she was just nine years old in 2017, Catanzaro was Bridgewater-Raritan’s water girl.
Nine years later on her Senior Night as a graduating member of Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s Class of 2026, she quickly pointed to a photo of her in this role on her senior poster made by her teammates and family.
That busy Panthers’ squad clearly benefited from the constant hydration Catanzaro provided.
In perhaps a glimpse into a crystal ball that forecasted her bright future in a Bridgewater-Raritan uniform, Catanzaro herself had a front-row ticket to arguably the Panthers’ best season to date since the program’s inception in 1997.
Under the direction of then-head coach Kathy DeBonis and Hall-Of-Fame Kathie DeBonis, Bridgewater-Raritan went 22-1 in 2017, when it swept the division, county, sectional, state, and Tournament of Champions titles with four All-American seniors in Melissa Hawkins, Hannah Hollingsworth, Ally Mastroianni, and Arielle Weissman leading the way.
“It’s just crazy how I am a senior now,” shared Catanzaro, who was guided by DeBonis in her first- and second-year student, freshman and sophomore seasons before second-year head coach Jaimie Peterson took over last season following DeBonis’ retirement.
Among many postsecondary accomplishments from the aforementioned group, Mastroianni went on to win the 2022 NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse national championship at the University of North Carolina, which is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), where Catanzaro will join when she sets foot onto Virginia Tech’s lacrosse field next year.
For now, Catanzaro and her fellow seniors have one paramount objective in their final seasons at Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
Going out into the sunset on top.
They had what looked to be a tall task entering Senior Night, when visiting North Hunterdon Regional High School came into John Basilone Memorial Field fresh off a near-upset of three-time reigning Somerset County Tournament champion and sixth-ranked Pingry School.
On top of this, Bridgewater-Raritan’s young defense also entered the evening, surrendering just under 13 goals per game on average.
Prior to its game against the Lions, who fell by just one goal to Pingry just one week earlier, Bridgewater-Raritan honored its four graduating Class of 2026 seniors: Catanzaro, senior goalie Brooke Pino, senior defender Allyson Trebino, and team statistician Giuliana Arminio.
After their Senior Night ceremony, the Panthers made a loud statement and left no doubt.
With its young players continuing to rise at Bridgewater-Raritan (6-7), which has been continuing to improve while returning to full strength, the Panthers’ defense, led by Trebino and Pino (eight saves, two forced turnovers, one ground ball), surrendered their fewest goals of the season against North Hunterdon (4-5).
On offense, Catanzaro tied a career-high 14 points via five goals and nine assists in the Panthers’ dominant 18-7 victory against the Lions Thursday, April 30, in Bridgewater.
“My legacy is not about my stats or my accolades, but my legacy here is about these younger girls and what they see out of me,” shared after the game by Catanzaro, who joined the 500-point club nine days earlier at home in the Panthers’ 18-10 victory over Bernards High School and leads the team with 90 points (52 goals, 38 assists). “They see both my failures and my biggest accomplishments that I have, but also what I do in those situations when I fail or when I succeed. I want to help leave behind the Bridgewater legacy of us always being one of the most talented teams in the entire state.”
“But being here and seeing all of the younger girls here looking up to the seniors now, the biggest statement I want to leave behind is that they can do it, too.”
Poetically, Bernards was a team Catanzaro watched Bridgewater-Raritan defeat three times as the squad’s nine-year-old water girl in 2017: once in the regular season, a second time in the Somerset County Girls’ Lacrosse Tournament championship game, and lastly in that year’s opening round of the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions.
That 2017 juggernaut squad went on to avenge its lone loss to Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child (11 state titles, three T.O.C. titles) in the Tournament of Champions finals, when it edged the Royals, 7-6, to cap off a campaign when the Panthers won their most recent of two state championships (2009, 2017) along with one of their whopping 12 Somerset County Tournament titles.
Injuries and understandable inexperience nine years later in 2026, particularly after losing a whopping 10 players due to graduation after the Panthers’Panther’s 16-6 season in Peterson’s debut as head coach, served as early roadblocks in Bridgewater-Raritan’s road back to the mountaintop.
If Senior Night was another glimpse into the crystal ball, however, those obstacles for the upward-trending Panthers may now have shifted to the rear-view mirror at the right time.
Catanzaro’s chief target on Senior Night was sophomore midfielder Skye Cabatu (seven goals, four draw controls, one forced turnover, four ground balls), who ended the evening as Bridgewater-Raritan’s second leading goal scorer (42 goals).
That dynamic duo wasted no time after the game’s opening draw, as Catanzaro’s first dish to Cabatu just 34 seconds into the game gave the Panthers a lead they never relinquished.
After Catanzaro scored with 10:09 left in the first quarter, sophomore attacker Ashley Ciufo (two goals, one assist) followed suit with 8:33 left in the opening period. With 7:07 left in the first quarter, Catanzaro tallied another assist on a goal by sophomore midfielder Sam Tremarco (two goals, seven draw controls, four ground balls), who recently returned to competition for Bridgewater-Raritan after being sidelined due to injury for about two months, going back to the end of the Panthers’ regular girls’ basketball season.
Tremarco, who was the Panthers’ starting point guard on the hardwood this past winter with sophomore Erin Brocklehurst (one ground ball) serving as her backup, finished third on Bridgewater-Raritan with 69 draw controls last spring.
This was only behind Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2025 graduates Emma Ciocon (89) and Sophie Levin (186), who set the all-time school record with 333 career draw controls.
While both draw control units finished with a 14-14 split at the center logo, Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense came up big on Senior Night.
Pino then successfully blocked a free-position shot by North Hunterdon senior midfielder Riley Pipher (four goals, three draw controls, two ground balls), and to cap a critical two-goal swing, Catanzaro found Cabatu in transition to quickly give Bridgewater-Raritan a 5-0 lead with 5:15 left in the first quarter.
The Lions struck twice on free positions in the first quarter, including one by junior Jessica Sell (two goals, four draw controls), who opened the scoring for North Hunterdon with 4:22 left in the first quarter.
Two minutes later, another save was made by Pino, who reached the 300-save milestone in the Panthers’ last game: a 12-11 loss at Montgomery High School.
As of Senior Night, Pino now has 151 saves this year alone.
“It took a really long time and lots of hard work to get here,” the Rider University women’s lacrosse-boundlacrosse bound Pino explained of her journey as the Panthers’ consistent starting goalie: a role that belonged to Weissman in her team’s 2017 T.O.C. championship season and was most recently held last year by then-senior Karly Perez, who tallied 316 career saves in Bridgewater-Raritan’s cage. “Getting past that and going to the next level is really exciting.”
“With the support of my team and my parents, it’s just a great feeling.”
Sophomore goalie Tara Maloy (two saves) then followed suit with a stop for North Hunterdon, but an unforced error on the Lions’ side of the field resulted in a turnover. This led to Ciufo producing her second goal of the period for Bridgewater-Raritan, which saw her conclude the evening third on the team with 28 goals and second behind Catanzaro with 14 assists.
Although Pipher struck on her next free position shot for North Hunterdon with 37 seconds left in the first quarter, the damage was already done, as Bridgewater-Raritan built a 6-2 cushion after one period.
Maloy opened the second quarter with another save for North Hunterdon, but a Panther-friendly roll resulted in a ground ball for Bridgewater-Raritan.
Catanzaro made the Lions pay.
With 10:21 left in the second quarter, she added the first of her two consecutive free-position goals, which occurred just 40 seconds apart from each other. Shortly afterwardafterwards, she dished out assists on two more goals: one each by Cabatu and Tremarco that happened two minutes apart, to extend the Panthers’ lead to 10-2.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s set defense then surrendered its first goal on a rip by Pipher with 4:46 left in the second quarter. Still, Pino, but Pino responded with another deflection that was picked up by junior defender London Smalls with 2:50 left in the first half.
Freshman goalie Julianne Magron (two saves) thwarted the Panthers’ ensuing possession, and Sell capitalized on a free-position goal with 31 seconds left in the period to bring North Hunterdon to within 10-4 heading into halftime.
Most notably, Bridgewater-Raritan went into the break having allowed just one goal outside of free-position shots by North Hunterdon.
“Based on our seniors last year, it was a big role to step into,” Trebino reflected onof the defense she leads in front of Pino. “I had to take it back to eighth grade when I played against a bunch of these girls, leading that defense, and how to get back into that mode. Our girls are quick to learn and easy to talk to, so that makes it a lot easier to help lead.”
“Next year, I don’t see any issues, and they will be perfectly good as is.”
The Lions then plotted their bid to rally and defeat the Panthers for the first time since beating Bridgewater-Raritan twice in their three meetings in 2014, most recently in a 19-17 shootout over the Panthers in the quarterfinal round of that year’s state sectional tournament.
Bridgewater-Raritan had other ideas.
In the first three minutes of the third quarter, the Panthers put the game out of reach with four consecutive goals: the first by Catanzaro, the next two by Cabatu, and the last in this stretch by sophomore Jenna Millets (one goal, three draw controls, four ground balls).
This extended the Panthers’ lead to 14-4 with 9:27 left in the third quarter, triggering and triggered a running clock.
After Pipher stopped that timer on a free-position goal for North Hunterdon with 6:16 left in the third quarter, Catanzaro answered with her fifth and final goal just over one minute later. Pipher registered her final goal for the Lions to pause the running clock one more time with 2:46 left in the period. Still, junior, but junior defender Izzy Knapp (four forced turnovers, three ground balls) forced another of her team-high four fumbles for Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense.
Thanks to the defensive leadership of Trebino, whose older sister,: Kaitlin (Class of 2023), also played defense for Bridgewater-Raritan as a member of its girls’ soccer backfield, this helped preserve the PanthersPanthers’ preserved theirlead at 15-6 lead after three quarters.
“I’ve just been able to see it firsthand with her going through our programs and then me getting to go through our high school sports programs as well,” shared about the importance of Bridgewater-Raritan’s uniform and tradition by the younger Trebino.
“I’ve been able to see how all levels compete across, but I’ve always had a competitor at home who was willing to push me and get me to where I am today.”
In the fourth quarter, Cabatu scored twice: once on another assist by Catanzaro, but another on a free-position attempt with 7:28 to go, when her shot pinballed out of North Hunterdon’s cage and rolled into the back of the netting on the ensuing backspin bounce.
Junior attacker Sia Agarwala (one goal, one assist) produced Bridgewater-Raritan’s final goal with 5:45 to go, which gave the Panthers their largest lead of 18-6. North Hunterdon sophomore Alex Friedman (one goal) then scored the game’s final goal with 4:25 remaining in regulation.
To appropriately end Senior Night and the Panthers’ best performance of the season, Pino made her last save for Bridgewater-Raritan with 35 seconds left to round out the game’s scoring.
“We lost some defensive seniors after last year, and with our injuries, it took a while,” assessed Pino of the improvements from her team’s unit, which has the Panthers at a 3-0 record in games they have surrendered a single-digit amount of goals. “Now, I feel like we’re strong and consistent.”
“As long as we do what we need to do, we’ll be solid back here.”
And most importantly, solid as a team overall for the long haul.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan (6-7) will be a home game against Shore Regional High School (6-8) to begin Community Day at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at John Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater.
Later on at 6 p.m. to punctuate this annual event, which celebrates the everlasting partnership between the town’s high school and youth lacrosse programs, Bridgewater-Raritan’s seventh-ranked boys’ lacrosse team will serve as host to reigning Group 1 state champion Glen Ridge High School on the adjacent Turf 2.
“I’m very thankful that I’ve had experience since I was a freshman, and me getting that experience in my younger years made me realize the kind of leader I want to be in my senior year to our younger girls,” credited of her teammates by Catanzaro, whose younger brother: Luca, is currently a regular defenseman as a sophomore on the Panthers’ boys’ lacrosse team. “I learned from all of those experiences I was very fortunate to have, and I have also given [Luca] a lot of advice about what I did when I was younger to try and help him get the same thing. Not only is it just me, but I’ve been training with our girls, and we’ve been putting in a lot of work on the side that most people don’t realize. Lacrosse is a team sport, and it really takes all seven girls on our offense to mesh and learn around each other. When offenses are more focused on me, that opens up so manymuch more gateway for them, and they’ve really stepped up this season.”
“Without them, I wouldn’t be here today, and I wouldn’t have the ability that I have.”