Boys lax teams meet in MCT
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The last time the West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys lacrosse team faced Princeton High School, Marty Flatley took a hard shot off his facemask to help preserve a 5-4 Pirates win.
Flatley and the Pirates have gotten between plenty of teams’ winning shots this season. They’ll try to do the same in the third meeting with PHS today, this one for a spot in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals.
”We’re just trying to focus on getting to the next round,” said Flately, the Pirates senior defenseman. “It’s great we’re playing them again, but it’d be nice to see some other teams.
”They always play us hard. And we do the same. They always want to beat us, and we always want to beat Princeton.”
It’s become a terrific matchup in recent years. Last year, PHS beat South in all four meetings. This year, it’s been the Pirates who have won the first two meetings, 9-6 on Apr. 14 and then 5-4 on May 3.
”I expect it to be a little tougher,” Flatley said. “I think it’ll be even closer. This is third time. We can’t change anything. We have to stick to what’s been working. Josh Shanker has to have another big game. He’s been playing well.”
Shanker is the newest part of the WW-P South defense, but the goalie has shown steady improvement through this season to help cement a defense that has been dominant all year.
”He’s really improved,” Flatley said. “He’s helped us out. We’ve been good with Grege Joseph, Austin (Gioseffi) and Zack (McCann).
”We fixed a few of the communication problems and everyone is taking control of what they have to do. They make sure they stay in, they make sure they slide to body and stay on body. That was a problem earlier. Now we’re getting everyone doing it and getting all squared away for states.”
WW-P South hasn’t allowed more than five goals in any of their last five games — all wins. The latest was a 15-2 rout of No. 14 seed Lawrence in the MCT first round Saturday. Jonathan Matthews had five goals and three assists, Jeff Leyden had four goals and an assist, Mike Domino had a goal and three assists and even Flatley had a goal and three assists.
”Recently, our offense has done a great job of holding possession,” Flatley said. “We got away from it for a bit, but it’s gotten better. We’re not rushing it.”
Flatley will be back focusing on the defensive end of things today against Princeton. Sixth-seeded PHS was a 10-9 winner over No. 11 Northern Burlington after getting three goals in the fourth quarter. Matt Purdy had three goals and an assist, Zach Halliday had three assists, Alex Rifkin had two goals and two assists and Kirby Peck and Colman Preziosi had two goals apiece. Elliot Wilson made 13 saves as PHS improved to 9-7.
No. 8 WW-P North lost to No. 9 Allentown, 9-7, despite two goals and four assists from Dan Bellezza, two goals and two assists from Brendan Kenavan and 13 saves from Liam Corbett. The Knights slipped to 6-11.
”We’re winning games a little differently than we had in the past,” said WW-P South head coach Matt Foret, whose team is 12-3. “We’re relying a little more on a pretty experienced defense. It’s playing well in the second half. If you look at our goals against in the last couple games, Lawrence we gave up two, Notre Dame was two, Princeton was four, Northern Burlington four, North five. It’s been a while since we’ve given up more than four goals.
”We’ve won a couple really low scoring games. We’re winning these games. They’re tight games. Having that experience on defense has been important. We’ve been able to get the big stops down the stretch.”
Flatley, who will play football at The College of New Jersey, is a big part of it. He’s been starting since his freshman year, and is a lockdown defender.
”He’s such a great defender for us,” Foret said. “In crunch time, we know he can guard the other team’s best player. When you get those tight situations, coaches tend to want to go to their best offensive layer. That’s a matchup that goes in our favor.”
Things have been tougher at the other end. The Pirates have been without the services of Alex Sandgren, who is due back for the state tournament, and that’s put more pressure on the likes of Chris Clancey, a junior.
”Chris, he’s vocal. He can control the offense,” Flatley said. “Me and Austin, we can’t control the offense because we’re at the other end. It’s basically all on him. He has to lead the offense and get them in the right formations. He’s done a pretty good job. We’re 6-2 or 7-2 without Alex.”
The Pirates offense has had to buy into a new approach this season. The Pirates aren’t trying to score double-digit goals every game.
Said Foret: “As the season has gone on and they’ve had some success, and see the value of having a really good patient possession in the middle of the third quarter, and when we’re playing good defense and when we get the ball and know we’re going to have a good possession, that helps. I think the kids have seen we’re a lot better when we’re patient. We’re better when we’re patient and the defense wears down some. As season goes on, they’ve had a real appreciation for it and how successful it’s going to make us.”
The patience on offense and the experience on defense has given the Pirates 12 wins, one more than they had all of last season.
”I think we’re better than last year,” Flatley said. “Resilience has something to do with it. The character has something to do with it. Everyone cares for each other. Everyone plays for the team, not individuals.”
The individuals have come together with a mix of experience to make the Pirates a tough team to beat. WW-P South has seen its team fall into place.
”We feel great about the way we’re playing,” Foret said. “I think we’re playing the best lax of our season right now. When you look back at some of the games earlier in the season, we gave up 10 goals to Robbinsville and 11 to Hopewell, and we haven’t given up more than seven since then. Our defense is coming on strong.
”We had inexperience in midfield. They’ve shown some great improvement as the season has gone on. They’ve gotten better, particularly with their defensive responsibility. Chris Clancy has done a good job of stepping in to become the leader of our offense. He’s been our leader and he’s stepped up and taken on the responsibility of having the offense go through him.”
Flatley has seen the Pirates bend, but not break throughout the year. Teams have given them a good challenge, but WW-P South has made the plays down the stretch to pull out wins. They’ll need to keep doing the same to advance to a MCT semifinal.
”I actually think we have a pretty good chance,” Flatley said. “I want to take it one game at a time and not look too far ahead. I do want another shot at Hopewell. Our defense gave them problems early. But we have to win two more games to have another chance at them.”
Hopewell Valley is the lone team on WW-P South’s schedule that they have not beaten this year. The two teams that the Pirates would potentially have to go through to face them again are two they beat going into the MCT. WW-P South stopped Notre Dame and then Princeton in successive low-scoring affairs.
”We felt pretty good,” Foret said. “Having the wins over Princeton and Notre Dame were nice, especially having to play them for the second time, but a the same time, all the games have been really close. We know we have to keep playing hard. We have to play at our best if we want to be successful.”