The fire burning inside of the heart of Elisabeth Ralph stems from one motive — to keep winning. She may have just scored her 100th career goal as an Indian, but her true desire comes from the feeling of victory.

From the time she was in fourth grade, Ralph played midfield, but when she got to Pascack  Valley, she was moved to defense for her freshman and sophomore years because that’s where there was a positional need. She would remain a defender until the start of her junior year when she returned to midfield.

“I’m happy to play wherever, I just wanted to contribute to the team. I’ll do whatever, I’ll sit on the bench if that’s how we’ll win,” Ralph said.

Currently, PV is in the semifinals of the North 1 Group 3 tournament, with a game against Northern Highlands on Tuesday. In PV’s second round game on Friday, Ralph scored 7 goals in Valley’s 10-7 win over Wayne Hills. The last three years, the Indians have lost in either the first or second round of the tournament.

“For the rest of high school, I want to win,” Ralph said. “I want to make as much of a run as we can in the state tournament. State championships would definitely be the goal. This is our last year, we have ten seniors on the team and we all play. So we all really want it.”

Ralph, a team captain and one of the leading scorers for the Indians, has received quite a bit of attention from others who have watched her play.

“When I leave the field, I do not leave without a compliment about her from either our opposing coach or a referee,” said PV head coach Melissa Velez.

Ralph has helped to lead her team to a 10-4 record thus far. She has scored 53 goals thus far this season, and her 100th career varsity goal came on April 16th against in PV’s game against Bergen Tech.

“It was pretty awesome,” Ralph said. “I obviously can’t do that without my teammates. They give me the ball, they support me… I look back — and I didn’t score a single goal freshman year. I scored three goals as a sophomore. I look back and I thought about how far I’ve come.”

Ralph isn’t the only senior Indian who reached a personal milestone recently. Goalie Hannah Linton recorded her 400th career save earlier this season.

“Hannah is probably the heart and soul of our team,” Ralph said of her teammate. “She’s amazing, not only as a goalie but as a person. She brings so much energy and positive attitude every day to practice.”

While Ralph is keeping her eyes on the present for now, she will soon leave PV to turn the page to the next chapter of her lacrosse career. In college, Ralph will be playing at Wofford, a school  who just recently implemented its girls’ lacrosse program.

“Their first season with this past year, so I’m really looking forward for playing for them and building up their program,” she said.