By: Kyle Moylan
Allentown High boys’ lacrosse is still a young enough program to feel empathy to first-year teams taking a bit of a beating out on the field.
Of course, most of that empathy is felt before and after matches.
"You still have to do what you have to do," noted Allentown Coach Rob Castro.
That means going out, playing hard, respecting the game and opponent and emerging with a win.
Allentown did that this past week in a 17-1 win over Monroe and a 16-1 win over Ocean. Allentown is now 3-0.
"Ocean and Monroe are new programs," Castro noted. "We’ll see if we can step it up when we start playing better teams."
As one-sided as those games were, it was kind of hard for Castro to evaluate them.
"You might be able to take the ball right past four people," Castro noted. "You have to make sure to tell the kids they can’t get away with that against the better teams. If they try it, they are going to lose it.
"It’s important to concentrate on the plays we worked on in practice. We have to concentrate on the fundamentals and moving the ball. We have to find open space and make the right pass. It all comes down to good decision making. We have to do what is right instead of what we can against these teams. If not, it breaks down the rhythm of what we do in practice."
In the win against Monroe, Marc Payson recorded six goals and an assist. Brendan Skeehan scored three goals, and Matt Mueller and Brian Goodwine added two each. Vincent Rini, Justin Darlea, James Bulk and Alex Jakober also scored. Eric Todd, Jakober and Darlea had three assists each.
Goodwin scored four goals, Payson and Darlea three each, and Skeehan, Rini and Jakober added two each in the win over Ocean. Skeehan and Jakober had three assists each. Rini, Payson and Goodwine each had two assists.
Allentown was scheduled to face Lawrence on Tuesday, a team it has already defeated 8-7 this season. It will face Rutgers Prep on Friday at home and will play at New Egypt on Tuesday. Next Wednesday Allentown will play at West Windsor North, one of the more established programs on the schedule.
"We play a lot of tough teams," Castro said. "It’s all a matter of staying focused. If we get a good game, we’ll have the opportunity to beat some of those teams. We need to get out of this new program level to the point where the other teams look at us as a force on the schedule."
NEHS BOYS
The New Egypt High boys’ lacrosse rebounded from a 15-5 loss to Wall to take care of Hightstown, 8-1, this past Friday.
Shane Scherholz scored two goals, and Tom Morton, Lance Hilburn and R.J. Healy had a goal each in the loss to Wall. Carr had two assists, and Healy and Dickert added one each. Andrew Konop made four saves in goal.
Rob Brown made 15 saves as New Egypt defeated Hightstown, 8-1. Morton led the way with three goals. Carr added a goal and three assists. Konop added two goals and an assist. Healy added a goal and Jeff Robinson an assist.
Weather is going to play a big factor in games this week. New Egypt was scheduled to face Rutgers Prep on Tuesday. It is scheduled to face Monroe at 4 p.m. today (Thursday at home). It will play Somerville at 4 p.m. at home on Friday and will host Allentown on Tuesday.
NEHS GIRLS
The New Egypt High School girls’ lacrosse team was defeated in both its games this past week.
Cora Delfini, Jillyan Bechtold, Sam North and Caitlin Kelleher scored a goal each in an 18-4 loss to Holy Cross.
Delfini had three goals for New Egypt in a loss to Manasquan on Friday.
New Egypt was scheduled to face Maple Shade on Monday and Willingboro on Wednesday. It will host Rancocas Valey at 3:45 p.m. on Friday.
AHS GIRLS
Colleen Giglia scored three goals, and Jackie Turner, Brittany Petrella, Kelsey Grant, Laura Franks and Caitlyn Cane added one each as Allentown defeated Lawrence, 8-1. Petrella added two assists.
Mommy was the winner in the latest battle of the Hanfords. Melissa Hanford, a recent first-time mother, guided her Robbinsville girls’ lacrosse team to an 8-6 win over Allentown, guided by her husband Jeff Hanford.

