Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week

Yetter’s scoring makes MHS best

By: Justin Feil
   With a better supporting cast, Jim Yetter doesn’t have to score as much as he did in his first two seasons with the Montgomery High boys’ lacrosse team.
   The Cougars, however, seem to be a more successful team when he does his usual scoring.
   In their first meeting of the season, Ridge shadowed the junior attack wherever he went and made life difficult. It resulted in a 10-9 overtime win for the Red Devils. Last Thursday, Yetter was held in check by Voorhees with just two goals and an assist — a relatively low-scoring game for the Cougars’ high scorer — in an 11-8 loss. Those are two of Yetter’s lowest scoring games, and two of just three MHS losses this season.
   "Overall, he’s a major leader on the team," said MHS head coach Tim Sullivan. "When you lose one of your main components, it definitely slows down other parts of your game He makes everyone around him better."
   Last Monday, Ridge couldn’t guard Yetter so closely in the rematch because his teammates found the back of the cage early to open things up in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals. Yetter got free for five goals and two assists as the Cougars avenged one of their three losses with a 10-7 win to reach the county final.
   "I think they realized we have more threats," Yetter said. "They realized they’d have to back off. My brother had a nice goal and (Tim) Santye had a nice goal. My guy was the slide and he didn’t come off me. Once they got goals, it takes the focus off me and makes it easier for me."
   Last Wednesday, it was the Hun School team that saw how potent the Yetter-led Cougars’ offense could be in a showdown for the Bianchi Division lead. Yetter had six goals and three assists and the Cougars won, 15-9, the second-highest total for goals scored on the Raiders at the time.
   "My freshman year, Hun came to our field and they just killed us," Yetter said. "It was horrible. This year it was great going out and winning. I remember freshman year they dominated us. I wouldn’t say the tables turned, but we controlled it Ridge was our first defining win. Then to go out two days later and beat another solid team, you realize it’s coming together."
   Yetter and the Cougars bounced back from the disappointing loss to Voorhees the next day to top Pingry, 6-3, for the program’s first SCT championship Sunday. Yetter led MHS with two goals, the second of which came with 3:29 left to pull the Cougars ahead, 5-3, and give them some breathing room.
   Jim Yetter is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
   "He was our first true player in the program that had that skill," said Sullivan, whose team got three goals and an assist in an 8-4 win over Jefferson in the Group II state tournament opener Wednesday. "People have been following his example and working at that aspect of the game that he has, which is moving the ball, finding the open person, being unselfish."
   It’s still nice to have someone like Yetter who can score when he needs to. In the final minutes of a tight one-goal game against Pingry, Yetter took advantage of an opportunity to score when he came out from behind the cage for the insurance goal that opened up a 5-3 lead.
   "You get that feeling," Yetter said. "I went to the goal once and saw it was open. I stepped back and did it again and it just happened. When we scored that goal, there were three minutes left and I don’t want to say it sealed the game, but it gave us a lot of momentum."
   Yetter has gotten plenty of goals in, from all sorts of angels, as well as a remarkable number of assists. Last year, he had 69 points for the Cougars on 43 goals and 26 assists. As he goes into today’s Group II quarterfinal against Mendham, Yetter has 47 goals and 23 assists. He leads the team in both categories and has the second-most ground balls, 74, on the team.
   "He’s really good at seeing the field and he’s really good at getting to the open spot and recognizing what his defender is doing," Sullivan said. "He’s been in this role since freshman year. He’s seeing the whole aspect of the game. He’s been the leading scorer for three years."
   Yetter’s numbers may be the same, but his confidence level is much higher than in past seasons. He’s continued to put up solid numbers to help a vastly improved Cougar team stay at the top of the Bianchi Division. The team’s success, he says, is due more to the influx of other talented players than his production.
   "It all started to change when my brother (Mike) came in, and Tim Santye and Rob Sparno," Yetter said. "We all know what each other is doing. Freshman year was different. You really had nobody to pass to. It’s great everyone can score. You can pass to everyone. They’re all great players."
   And Jim Yetter may still be the most important of them all.
   "Pretty much his stats are similar to last year," Sullivan said. "The big difference is the level of competition is twice as strong and now he’s making it count in big games."