DeLucas ignite historic lacrosse victory
By: Rudy Brandl
Krystina DeLuca and her Hillsborough High senior lacrosse teammates still remember when Hunterdon Central pounded them by a 25-2 score in their freshman year.
Ever since that 2002 season, the Raiders have been gaining momentum, waiting for their chance to finally avenge the program’s most lopsided defeat. They’ve come closer to beating Central every year and fell agonizingly close in last year’s 12-11 loss.
Monday night on the new home turf at Hillsborough High, it finally happened. And the HHS girls made it look easy, scoring early and often en route to an impressive 15-3 triumph.
"I knew we were capable of doing it, but you never know," Hillsborough third-year head coach Beth Murrin said afterward. "The monkey’s not off your back until it’s off your back."
"It means so much," said DeLuca, who included fellow seniors Erin Poulter and Caitlyn Glowacki in her rallying speech. "I told them in the locker room before the game how badly we lost to them when we were freshmen. We wanted this and we wanted everyone to want it as much as we did. We had fire in our eyes."
Junior second home Ali DeLuca was one player who didn’t want to disappoint her older sister. She stormed right down the field and scored the game’s first goal on a nice feed from Katie Marino with only 15 seconds gone.
Glowacki quickly made it 2-0 within the first minute of action with an unassisted goal. The senior attack wing completed a great individual effort with a sprint across the goal area and crisp finish from point-blank range.
"That’s always our plan, to go out with intensity no matter who we’re playing and get a couple of quick scores," Murrin said. "We’re a high-scoring team, a fast-break team. That’s how we approach every game."
Central briefly made it interesting when Mandy Malzberg connected on a hard shot from the right side with 17:34 to play in the first half. At 2-1, it was still anybody’s game early, but the Raiders scored the next three goals and never looked back.
The game turned in Hillsborough’s favor for good when the DeLuca sisters combined to make it 3-1. Krystina checked the ball away from Malzberg and started the transition attack. Ali finished it at the other end with a blistering shot into the cage with 15:47 to play in the half.
Krystina made it 4-1 off a free position play and Ali converted a beautiful feed from her sister and fired it home for a 5-1 cushion with 11 minutes left. Central got a goal back at 10:15 but Krystina DeLuca answered just 14 seconds later and the Raiders netted another five in a row to take a commanding 10-2 lead.
The visitors scored just before the end of the half but never got one past HHS goalkeeper Lauren Griggs in the final 25 minutes. Griggs made eight saves in one of her better performances of the year. Defenders Poulter, Danielle Iwanechko, Nikki Smartt, Jade DeNapoli and Chrissy DiClemente also contributed to shutting down the Red Devils.
"That’s always our focus to hold them down," Murrin said. "They caught us on a play in the first half but we learned from it. They’re showing that they recognize the problem and they fixed it. They made sure it didn’t happen again."
Hillsborough was tough on defense, fast in transition and crisp in finishing near the cage. Ali DeLuca finished with a game-high six goals, while Krystina netted four. Glowacki netted a pair in the first half, while Kristen Watts, Liz Tafaro and Marino each scored once in the game.
"We never beat Hunterdon Central before, so this was a game we didn’t want to lose," Ali DeLuca said. "We put our hearts into it. Everyone went for the ground balls. We all played hard."
Murrin and her girls entered the season looking to knock off a traditional powerhouse program like Central or Bridgewater-Raritan. HHS came within a goal of accomplishing that mission against B-R in the season opener. The team hasn’t lost since, winning seven consecutive games by comfortable margins.
Last week, the team won two lopsided games on the road over Watchung Hills (14-4) and East Brunswick (16-3). Ali DeLuca led the way in both games, with five goals and two assists at Watchung and six goals and three assists at East Brunswick.
Marino and Krystina DeLuca connected four times apiece at Watchung, while Tafaro added the other goal. Krystina also scored four times at EB, while Tafaro and Marino tallied twice and Glowacki and Lauren Watts netted one goal apiece. Griggs stopped 12 shots at Watchung and seven at East Brunswick.
The Raiders were scheduled to host Montgomery Wednesday and travel to North Hunterdon Friday.

