Hightstown stays unbeaten with win over WW-P South
HIGHTSTOWN » To build on the best season in program history, the Hightstown High boys lacrosse team traveled to Florida for spring break from April 2-6. The Rams played tough out-of-state competition including a team from upstate New York. They enhanced their camaraderie with a mission to soar to even greater heights in 2018.
The labor is paying off for Hightstown, which improved its record to 5-0 Thursday evening by dispatching West Windsor South at David J. McIntire Field, 16-5.
“While a lot of teams in early April were stuck inside or playing in the cold, we had five days of 85 and sunny, and the guys really bonded over that time,” fourth-year coach Mike Zapicchi said. “We have a lot of veteran senior leadership. We’re really putting it together right now. We’re kind of just firing on all cylinders.”
The Rams returned the majority of their core leadership from last year’s team, which advanced to the first NJSIAA South Jersey Group III semifinal in school history. That includes the same three attackmen for the third consecutive season — senior Ryan Daunt, senior John Ely and junior Jake Haug.
“Definitely we have high expectations for ourselves,” Daunt said. “Coach Z has high expectations for us I know. We’ve been playing together for so long. We’re a good group of boys. We know how to play. I think we just want to play our hearts out there.”
Daunt, Ely, Haug and midfielder Matt DeCristofaro each netted three goals. Sean Haddock had two while Liam Connolly and Ryan Descoteau provided support with one each.
Within the vastly balanced attack, Hightstown’s continuity showed. The Rams played decisively with quick swing passes to dissect South’s defense, racing to a 7-1 halftime lead.
“Playing against a zone, the quick ball movement is always really effective, especially when a zone is packed in tight like theirs is,” Zapicchi said. “We need to at least expose the outside shots as well.”
Daunt, who recently scored his 100th career goal and is closing in on 200 points, became Hightstown’s all-time leading scorer during his junior year. He has played club lacrosse for Team Turnpike in Princeton over the summer and also plays indoor during the winter.
“It’s like a year-round thing for me,” Daunt said. “I’ve been playing for like 10 years now ... played in elementary school, middle school, so all that work leading up kind of felt pretty good getting the 100, making a legacy here, setting some records.”
Daunt and Ely did the heavy lifting from a passing standpoint, combining for 12 assists. Ely had seven assists to finish with a game-high 10 points.
“The last game he was shooting and scoring a lot, so if (teams) see a scouting report on that, they’re going to play him,” Daunt said. “He can feed other guys who are open. It kind of opens up a lot of other offensive opportunities for us.”
Despite Hightstown’s shooting onslaught, junior goalie Gordon Hesterberg had an impressive outing with 10 saves for South (2-3).
Cole Sayde had a team-high two goals for the Pirates, who struggled to find a rhythm through Hightstown’s defensive pressure. Senior Luke Nagy stopped six shots to anchor the Rams’ defense.
“This is his fourth year, third year starting at the varsity level,” Zapicchi said of the goalie. “He’s there with Danny Teman who shut down Nick Tello who’s a pretty good attackman for West Windsor South. And then Michael Quigg who’s one of our school’s best football players who we changed into a defender midway through last year. The sky’s the limit for that kid. He’s fantastic when he’s got the ball in transition.”
With a sound defense and so many offensive weapons, Hightstown looks poised to potentially finish with the best record in the CVC.
Coming into the season the program had never beaten Hopewell, Robbinsville or Princeton. The Rams knocked off Hopewell on Tuesday, 9-4, and have the other two teams marked on their calendar, Zapicchi said.
In the coming weeks they will be challenging themselves with North Jersey teams Immaculata, Johnson, East Brunswick and Watchung Hills as well.
“As it is right now, you can’t really pick out one or two guys on our team if you wanted to lock somebody off,” Zapicchi said. “Our points are spread out between our three attackmen and pretty much two other midfielders. They each have about 20 points ... so it’s tough to decide who you’re going to put your best player on when you play us because we have really talented players at all different positions on the offense.”
WW-PS (2-3) Hightstown (5-0) Goals —
Sayde 2, Jiang, Mattia, Yanagi (WWS), Daunt 3, Ely 3, Haug 3, DeCristofaro 3, Haddock 2, Connolly, Descoteau (H). Daly, Ramakrishna (WWS), Ely 7, Daunt 5, Haug, Haddock, Riceks (H). 11 (WWS), 26 (H). Hesterberg 10 (WWS), Nagy 6 (H).
Assists — Shots — Saves — 1 3 0 4 1 3— 4 5 — 5 16