HHS beats Watchung Hills in first round
By: John E. Powers
BRIDGEWATER Topping two longtime nemeses in 72 hours in the Somerset County Tournament wasn’t meant to be for the Hillsborough High boys’ lacrosse team.
The Raiders, who snapped a five-game and three-year losing streak to Watchung Hills Saturday at Noonan Field with a 9-5 win in the first round of the tournament, lost to Bridgewater-Raritan 11-4 Monday afternoon in the county quarterfinals at Basilone Memorial Field. The Raiders have yet to ever beat the Panthers in lacrosse.
The sixth-seeded Raiders, who dropped to 5-8, were never in the game with No. 3 Bridgewater-Raritan. They fell behind 5-0 before junior middie Ryan Kloss scored at the 7:36 mark of the second period. Junior middie Gary Politi made it 5-2 with another goal with 2:14 left in the half.
That’s how the teams headed into intermission, but Bridgewater-Raritan scored six unanswered goals after the break before junior middie Chris Livelli scored with 2:04 left in the game and Jason Makarevic scored with just nine seconds left. Senior attack Brian Yepez had two assists and Graham Lewis and junior attack Jake Wilk both had an assist.
"We came out flat and they really took it to us," Hillsborough head coach Vin Coviello said. "We fought back a little bit, but we just came out flat and we were really were giving them some good looks at the goal. They were really running around on us."
Bridgewater-Raritan (8-5) zoomed out to a quick lead as junior attack Will Clark and senior attack Nick Federici scored at 9:37 and 8:44, respectively, of the opening period. Senior attack Chris Jones made it 3-0 at 8:12 off an assist from Federici before Federici scored at 7:41 to give the Panthers a 4-0 edge. Clark scored another unassisted goal at 6:20 to extend the lead to 5-0. Federici ended up with four goals and two assists.
Bridgewater-Raritan junior goalie Pat Maney, making his first varsity start, was superb stopping 15 shots, some of them at close range.
"He played out of his mind," Coviello said. "The goalie was on fire."
Bridgewater-Raritan beat Hillsborough 11-8 April 18.
The Raiders lost a heart-wrenching 7-6 decision to Watchung Hills in four overtimes in last year’s county tournament. This time around, Brandon Wilk had three goals and Yepez and Ryan Buerkle connected on two apiece. Kloss had a goal and three assists and Jake Wilk had two assists. Brendan White had 13 saves.
Saturday’s first-round victory eased the pain of some recent frustrations against the Warriors. Hillsborough had lost to Watchung Hills 8-7 in overtime last year and 7-6 in the county tournament four-overtime epic last year. The Raiders fell to the Warriors 8-5 and 6-4 in 2004 and 5-4 in 2003 in another overtime setback. The Raiders last win against Watchung before Saturday was an 11-4 victory in 2002.
"They were really pumped," Coviello said. "They were really focused."
The Raiders will play Voorhees at 7 p.m. Friday night before going to West Windsor-Plainsboro South for a 3 p.m. contest Saturday afternoon.

