BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer
JACKSON – Jackson High School boys lacrosse coach Nick Caruso needed to find a way to jump start his offense. His Jaguars team was playing competitively, but they just weren’t finishing around the goal.
In an effort to up the offensive production, Caruso took one of his prize midfielders and slipped him into an attack position. The switch yielded an increase in offensive productivity immediately.
Senior Kale Mabey has been on a scoring tear since making the move to attacker a few games ago. Mabey has scored 14 goals and added five assists in the last three games alone. As a team, Jackson has scored 29 goals in its last three games.
“He’s been a major role in our offense getting started,” Caruso said. “I was hesitant to make the move at first, but then I was left with no other choice. He has been a great addition to our scoring attack.”
Mabey scored a game-high five goals as Jackson routed Brick Memorial, 12-2, in a Shore Conference A South game last week. Caruso credits Mabey’s athleticism with his effectiveness inside the circle.
“He is extremely fast and quick,” Caruso said. “His first step is unbelievable. He has been taking guys one-on-one and beating them easily. He is beginning to draw a lot of double teams, which opens other guys up around the goal. He sees the field well and can make that pass from in close to the open man.”
Caruso says losing Mabey at midfield hurts the club, but the Jags need to score goals in order to win.
“We don’t have a lot of experience at midfield now,” Caruso said. “But it seems that the switch has been better for us. We’ve played well the last couple of games.”
Matt Bell notched four goals and two assists, and Chris Mazurek added two in the win over Brick Memorial. George Smith had a goal and an assist, and Steve Sharac had one assist as Jackson improved to 5-4 overall.
P.J. Kearney made five saves in goal as the Jackson defense stymied Brick Memorial’s offense in the second half.
“We got contributions from everybody in this win,” Caruso said. “Offensively, we were sharp with running our plays and moving the ball, and defensively we did a good job of marking and limiting the amount of shots on goal.”
Jackson out-shot its opponent by a 29-7 margin.
“Those are the kind of numbers we like to see,” Caruso said. “You can tell by that statistic alone that we pretty much controlled the game. We need to do more of that.”
In a 9-5 win over Toms River South, Mabey scored four goals and three assists. That was Mabey’s coming out game.
“He had just one goal before going on this scoring tear,” Caruso said. “Sometimes you put players in different positions and find out that they are talented at that spot. We knew he was an athletic kid, but he has really opened some eyes with his scoring ability.”
Mazurek had three goals and one assist, while Smith and Sharac each had a goal and an assist in the victory.
With a win over Toms River East Wednesday, Jackson could clinch its second consecutive A South title.
“We need to play with the same intensity and focus we’ve had for the past three games,” Caruso said. “This is a big week for us. We can have some good things happen.”