MHS’ Dorsey saves best for last
By: Justin Feil
When Kyle Dorsey reflects on his high school career, he’s not going to remember a daunting losing streak, but rather he’ll fondly recall his final two games with the Montgomery High boys’ lacrosse team. Those two games are when the Cougars played the best as a team, when they played their hardest, and the effort showed in the results two wins.
That’s one win more than the Cougars had all season coming into its final two games. After opening the season with a 6-5 overtime win over Oratory Prep, a game in which it lost its senior captain in a foreboding sign, MHS dropped the next 15 games. It’s only remaining games were St. Joseph’s Metuchen, a team bound for the state tournament, and Princeton Day School, a Prep B team in the midst of a difficult year of its own.
Dorsey, a senior attack, scored three goals in a stunning 7-6 overtime win over St. Joe’s last Tuesday, then finished off his career with four goals, all in the first half, in a 7-6 win over PDS on Friday.
Kyle Dorsey is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
"It was really great to win these last two games," said Dorsey, who led the team with 22 goals and three assists this season. "It will make everyone work harder for next year. Everyone will work hard in the summer to get ready."
Of course, Dorsey won’t be there to see the momentum he helped create. He lost all of last season after tearing his quadriceps muscle in a pre-season game, but recovered fully to become a vital part of the MHS attack.
"It was definitely nice to have him back," said Cougar head coach Tim Sullivan, whose squad finished 3-15. "He was our leading scorer this season. And his last two or three games, he really played his heart out. That’s all I asked of the seniors."
The end result is a positive memory with which to remember the season, even if Dorsey was still struggling to figure out how the Cougars upset St. Joe’s before taking out PDS.
"I don’t know how it happened," Dorsey said of the win over St. Joe’s. "A lot of us didn’t think about it. We all just got together and worked as a team. A lot of my goals were assisted. I always got good passes from behind."
It helped, however, that Dorsey had a knack for finding an opening in opponents’ defenses all season, and he picked the final two games to come up with some of his biggest days.
"He took a beating all year," Sullivan said. "He always drew the best defender, and he did that against St. Joe’s and PDS. He was just cutting to get open. He created all the shots he got. He wasn’t just standing there."
"The key thing I’m really good at is finding a way in," agreed Dorsey, who is considering trying to walk on at Hartford next year. "I just wanted to get in there."
It’s a role that he’s grown accustomed to since moving up to the attack two years ago, a move that Sullivan orchestrated and one that helped keep Dorsey interested in the game.
"I started playing in the rec program in seventh or eighth grade," Dorsey said. "I played with my older brother, who was really good. Montgomery got the program when I was a sophomore, and I actually played defense my sophomore year. But then my coach thought I was better with a short stick.
"I was terrible at defense. I never really liked the sport until I switched. I had fun then."
Dorsey worked alongside another convert, Ben Tong, who was a midfielder until the final weeks of the season. Moved up with Dorsey, they formed a strong unit. Tong had three goals apiece against St. Joe’s and PDS. The sudden improvements in the final week of the season give Montgomery hope for next season.
"Defensively," Sullivan said, "two of my defenders, and my goalie and Ben Tong stepped up a lot. They showed the potential we have in those last games. I know a lot of them will work really hard. And we have a nice group coming in. Next year, we’ll be young, but I think this is going to be our worst year in a long time. We’re going to get better."
And though Kyle Dorsey won’t be a part of MHS’ success, he already did his part in setting an example all season, none more dramatic than his all-out play in the final two games of his high school career. Despite the Cougars’ overall record, the final week’s results show that he leaves as a winner.