Coverage of boys, girls MCT semifinals
HOPEWELL TWP. » The Hightstown boys lacrosse team’s dream season is one step away from the first county championship in school history.
The top-seeded Rams stamped the program’s first trip to the Mercer County Tournament final by holding off fifthseeded Notre Dame, 9-6, Tuesday night at Ackerson Field.
“We’re real excited about coming here and getting a win,” said senior midfielder Sean Haddock, who led all scorers with four goals. “My team, they’ve helped me out all along. We have five great scorers on the team. We’ve got kids locking down the best attackmen in the county, a goalie (Luke Nagy) who stops a lot of things.”
Already with the most wins in program history, Hightstown (15-1) enters Thursday night’s championship against secondseeded Princeton Day School having only lost to North Jersey power Watchung Hills.
The Rams went undefeated against all local teams during the season, including an 8-0 mark against Colonial Valley Conference competition.
“We’re real pumped — first time ever going to the MCT finals,” Haddock said. “I think we’re very prepared. We’re going to scout them. Our coaches scout very well. We know who their best players are, how to stop them. We’re just going to put in new plays and try our best.”
Matt DeCristofaro netted three goals and dished out two assists. John Ely and Jake Haug each found the back of the net once.
Hightstown nursed a 6-2 halftime lead following a big second quarter in which the Rams pulled away with four straight goals.
Notre Dame (7-8) also played Hightstown tough in the rivals’ first meeting on April 14, a 7-3 loss for the Irish. They struggled again offensively against Hightstown’s tenacious defense. Dean Szatkowski led Notre Dame with two goals.
“What we did to prepare is we put in new man-up plays,” Haddock said. “They didn’t really work that well, but we had to lock down their main player, Erik Henig, and we did that. We got the job done here putting in the goals necessary.”
Haddock, who leads Hightstown with 37 goals this season, came up particularly clutch down the stretch Tuesday by scoring two of the Rams’ final three goals — both assisted by DeCristofaro.
“He’s just fast as hell,” Haddock said of his teammate. “So he runs and he draws the slide, and I’m there for the shot and I just sticked ‘em. We’re all happy. It’s a lot of fun.”