By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Jonah Tuckman had been looking forward to a week like this since he was playing lacrosse in the middle school at Princeton Day School.
Now a senior captain for the Panthers, Tuckman looked at a three-game stretch where his team faced Germantown Academy, Lawrenceville and Hun as the ultimate challenge.
“This year, the whole time we have known this first week would be the toughest,” Tuckman said. “We knew going into games against Germantown Academy, Lawrenceville and Hun those were three huge teams in the first seven days. We knew there was no time to slowly get into the season. We had to get into top form and really be ready for this week and perform well.”
The Panthers responded by winning two of the games and nearly pulling off three wins. After opening the season with a 19-6 win over Pennington, PDS topped Germantown Academy, 9-4, and then dropped a tough 5-4 game to Lawrenceville on a goal in the closing seconds. But the Panthers responded to that loss with a 10-6 win over Hun.
“We have been focused and we have been calling it Red Week because we had Pennington, Germantown Academy, Lawrenceville and Hun,” PDS coach Rich D’Andrea said. “We knew it would be tough stretch. To make it through 3-1 and more importantly show a growth in the stretch as a team was impressive.”
In the win over Hun on Monday, Will Brossman scored six goals to lead the offense for the Panthers. Connor Fletcher added a goal and five assists in the win.
“It was definitely a good week,” Tuckman said. “I was pretty happy with how it went. We really wanted to win the Lawrenceville game and we were real close. It is great to play some high caliber teams, especially some of best in the area, to show we can hang in and beat teams if we play our best.
“We have a great group right now. A lot of guys have been here since middle school. There are five of us that have been on the varsity since we were freshmen and we make up a core of the senior class.”
Tuckman is part of a large group of players who have been at PDS since middle school. They have played for D’Andrea and current assistant and former head coach Rob Tuckman throughout their careers and the consistency has been a positive for the Panthers.
“I think the neat thing for me is I coached with Rob a number of years and we have the pipeline that we have with the middle school,” D’Andrea said. “What makes us unique is we are a K-12 school and have a great pipeline in place and that is something that has successfully helped our program. I have really enjoyed watching this senior class. They were the first eighth grade class when I came to PDS.”
“We have a talented senior class that is a tight knit group with great leadership. Four of the kids are going to play college lacrosse. Jonah is someone everyone looks up to. He says the right things and leads those young guys.”
Tuckman, who will play at Vassar next year, is winding down a long but successful career at PDS and would like to see the Panthers finish with a championship or two this year.
“A bunch of have been playing together since seventh grade,” Tuckman said. “We have had this season in our view for a while. This is a special season for us. Amir (Melvin), ‘Fletch’ and I have been playing here since seventh grade. Joey (Levine) and James (Fragale) played with us on Team Turnpike so we have been playing together since we were young. It has been great. That is one of best parts about our team. We really play as a team. You never see one guy taking it and trying to do it on his own.
“It has been great. I can look back and think to my fourth grade coach (Peter) Higgins and how much I learned from him. I am really happy we are all here together.”
The Panthers improved to 4-1 with a 12-3 win at Blair on Wednesday. They will host Shipley today and Princeton High on Monday as they continue to prepare for what they hope will be strong runs in the Mercer County and state Prep B tournaments.
“One thing that we mentioned after the Hun game was it was a great win and the Lawrenceville game was a tough loss, but our focal point is the end of the year,” D’Andrea said. “We have the Mercer County Tournament and Prep B and we have impressed that on the boys. They know what the focal point is. Hopefully we have them prepared. Rob Tuckman, who has been managing the defense, has been an invaluable piece of what we’re doing right now. He has been great with the defense.”
