Hopewell Valley, Hun advance to MCT title game
HOPEWELL TWP. » When the first Mercer County Tournament champion in boys lacrosse since 2019 is crowned Thursday night, it will either be a newcomer or a two-time winner.
Top-seeded Hun and secondseeded Hopewell Valley advanced to the title game with victories in Tuesday’s semifinals held at Hopewell’s Ackerson Field. Hun (9-4) eliminated fourth-seeded Allentown, 11-7, and Hopewell (13-2) held off third-seeded Notre Dame, 8-7.
Hun joined the tournament this season for the first time since its inception 2009. As one of two prep teams in the field along with Princeton Day School, the Raiders must play without their handful of postgraduates on the roster. But the opportunity to seize a trophy is worth it.
“Just bring it all for the chip; bring it home,” senior midfielder Andrew Heubeck said Tuesday’s win. “We haven’t really played in many tournaments, so it’s nice to finally play for something.”
Heubeck, a Colgate University commit, led Hun’s offense against Allentown with four goals.
The Raiders jumped out to a 4-0 lead and went into halftime up 7-2. Despite losing most of the face-offs, the top seed was a bit too quick and too precise for Allentown’s defense.
“They weren’t sliding from the crease, so we just spun it through X (behind the net) and then there was a guy wide open on the back and we took advantage of that a lot,” Heubeck said.
Hun also had key contributions from Dan Cano (two goals, one assist), Evan Wright (two goals), Brendan Marino (one goal, three assists), Ryan Donahue (one goal, one assist), Ridge Peabody (one goal) and Colin Gillen (two assists).
The Redbirds rallied to within 9-6 early in the fourth quarter, but Hun’s Luke Donahue stood tall in the cage with 19 saves. Donahue was filling in for Ryan Croddick, a postgraduate who is committed to Princeton.
“He’s awesome,” Heubeck said. “He’s a freshman and he’s stepping up.”
In the first semifinal, Hopewell also rode the wave of a hot start to victory.
The Bulldogs raced to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to four early saves from Cutter Swanson followed by efficient transition offense. Jacob Sanderson scored three of those goals and finished with four goals and three assists.
“We know that transition games are a big part of lacrosse for all teams,” the junior attackman said. “We knew we needed to come out with a quick start against them. We knew they were going to come out firing after we beat them the first time (6-1 on April 26), so we just had to start it off quick.”
Hopewell’s zone defense stifled Notre Dame for much of the game. The Irish became more deliberate and effective in the second half to flirt with a comeback. They made it a two-goal game twice in the third quarter and a one-goal game twice in the fourth quarter, but each time Hopewell had a timely response.
Louis Azara netted two goals, while Lucas Gaissert and Luke Caldwell each added one. Dominic Chila and Luke Long tallied one assist apiece.
“We needed to think about our possessions, we needed to hold the ball a little. Our defense was playing great, we needed to give them
a break. We just needed to make each possession count instead of forcing those possessions,” Sanderson said. “It’s a big momentum game and they got some momentum during it, but we just never let them tie it or even get the lead that entire time. That was probably the most important part.”
Hopewell has become arguably the best team in the CVC by learning from all its close losses in 2021 and developing a deeper unit across the field. These Bulldogs have seen 14 different players score goals this season — four of them at least 26 goals — to go with a stout defense which has allowed only 43 goals during the team’s 10-game winning streak.
Hopewell will now try to knock off Hun for the program’s third county title and the first since 2015.
“We’re playing as a team this year,” Sanderson said. “We all play together; we all want one goal. We want to win MCTs and then do as well as we can in states, maybe even win states. So we’re just playing for each other instead of individually.”