Stanton pleased with progress
By: Bob Nuse
Despite entering the Group II state tournament as the No. 10 seed, Princeton High boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Stanton felt like his team had a chance to make a run through the bracket.
He was proven right with the first game, as the Little Tigers avenged an earlier regular-season loss and topped seventh-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro South, 12-4. And the veteran coach was nearly proven right a second time, but his team came up just short Saturday, dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to No. 2 seed West Morris.
"We had a pretty good opportunity to win the game," said Stanton, whose team finished the season with a 10-9 record. "I thought we could win this one and maybe even the one in the next round."
Instead, the Little Tigers came up just short of a chance to see what they could do against third-seeded Ridge.
Princeton jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter, only to see West Morris score the next four goals to grab a 4-2 lead. The Little Tigers scored again just before halftime to cut the lead to 4-3. Princeton scored the first two goals of the third quarter to make it a 5-4 lead, only to see West Morris tie the score.
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter, with West Morris connecting for the winning goal two minutes into overtime. David Giancola scored twice for Princeton, while Mike Vieten, Karl Fries and Mike Lynch added single tallies. Sam Finnell played his usual stellar game in goal, recording 21 saves in the loss.
"We improved a lot defensively over the season," said Stanton, who completed his 10th season as Princeton’s head coach. "We’re a much better team now defensively than we were in the middle of the season. I think it was just a matter of experience. We’re starting two sophomores (Casey Rahn and Jesse Mostoller) on defense. Our midfielders are all in their first year except for Mike Vieten.
"Overall, I’m very pleased with the season. The biggest thing is that we played our best lacrosse at the end of the season. The seniors that are leaving us learned some important life lessons. They can look at the way we turned the score around against West Windsor and be proud of that. It shows that the hard work they put into the season really paid off."
Princeton was also well prepared thanks to playing an A Division schedule in the Pitt Division. The Little Tigers’ record may have suffered with losses to teams like Lawrenceville, Moorestown, Hunterdon Central and Christian Brothers Academy, but the experience of playing those teams helped make Princeton better.
"Playing against those teams really helps," Stanton said. "When you lose those games you just keep working hard and try to improve, even if the result of winning doesn’t always show. I think it showed in the West Windsor South game how much it helped us playing that kind of schedule.
"The teams in the Bianchi Division now are very good, there are no more easy games there like their used to be because the teams like Voorhees and Pennington have improved so much. But when you lose to a team, 11-4, like we did against West Windsor, then come back and beat them by a similar score the next time, it shows how much you have improved."
Stanton believes his team is on the road back to the kind of seasons it enjoyed a few years back, where the Little Tigers reached the state quarterfinals. This season, he saw the kind of growth from his team he saw as they prepared for a run as one of New Jersey’s top teams.
"It’s been special for me," Stanton said. "When we had the years where we were really good, you start to think that it is always going to be that way. The last couple years we’ve been working to build it back up to where we want it to be. That’s what makes it fun and keeps me working hard at it.
"We have some talented guys coming back and some of these guys are going to be improving quite a bit as they get more experience. Mike Lynch is a sophomore who plays for us who had never played lacrosse before he got to high school. Efran Barrientos just started playing lacrosse as a sophomore. Our second midfield has a sophomore and a junior who had never played before. It’s great to see those kids working hard and getting better all the time."

