Notre Dame comes up short in tough out of conference test
LAWRENCEVILLE » Playing a challenging out of conference schedule often doesn’t lend itself to tangible short-term benefits. A team’s record may suffer, but in the long run it’s generally viewed as a key ingredient to building a high school sports program.
Notre Dame’s boys lacrosse team began a tough three-game stretch with a 6-3 loss Tuesday to Rutgers Prep. The Irish will next test themselves with St. Joseph (Metuchen) Saturday followed by North Hunterdon next week.
“It’s definitely a learning process,” fourth-year coach Michael Andersen said. “We’ve got some growing pains. We’ve got a pretty young team — we’ve got four seniors. So it’s a tough thing to deal with here. I hope they’re learning as much as I’m learning from them. It’s a give and take.”
Notre Dame split its first six games to start the season. The Irish earned wins against CVC rivals Princeton, West Windsor South and Hopewell but dropped contests against Robbinsville, Morris Knolls and Hightstown.
When they hosted Rutgers Prep on a windy day, the Irish were fairly strong defensively but couldn’t capitalize on what was a scoreless game until the Argonauts took a 1-0 lead with 10:39 left in the second quarter.
After Rutgers Prep’s Dom Fiorello found Liam Gleason open for a goal from the right side, Notre Dame countered with two prime opportunities at the net. But Charlie Phillips saved both shots on goal, allowing the visitors to take control.
Danny Varga gave Rutgers Prep a 2-0 halftime lead by scoring unassisted with an impressive sidearmed shot. The Drexel commit muscled his way in for two more solo goals late in the third quarter, extending the lead to 6-2. He finished with a game-high three goals and two assists.
“Next time we’ll have to execute a little bit better, but he’s a phenomenal player,” Andersen said. “Execution was tough. Our guys battled and fought really hard, but just didn’t finish.”
Despite creating its fair share of opportunities at the net, Notre Dame generally either missed wide or struggled to overcome Rutgers Prep’s physicality inside. Erik Henig had the team’s most productive day offensively with one goal and two assists from behind the net.
Andersen said the Irish need to learn to communicate better and work more cohesively as a unit, but that’s part of the earlyseason process with a core of mostly juniors.
Henig currently leads the team with 14 goals and nine assists. Joey Lippincott has 10 goals, Dean Szatkowski has eight goals and Pat Larkin is second on the team with five assists. Daniel Brady has 88 saves in net behind a starting defense of Liam Smith, Tristan Tritt and Hunter Tilton.
All those players are working together as the program aims for a successful rebuild after graduating former stars Matt Sellers and Sam Stephan, who are now playing Division I lacrosse at High Point and Mount St. Mary’s, respectively.
“It’s tough, and I’m feeling the team is really coming together and trying to solve the problem of those two being gone. Obviously we don’t get ‘em back, so it’s just got to be a team effort,” Andersen said. “Our defense as a whole is playing really great, the last three games holding teams to seven goals or less. We held a really good Hightstown team to seven goals. Dean Szatkowski at the faceoff X is playing his behind off. Erik Henig at attack, Pat Larkin at midfield ... I’m really proud of all my guys stepping up.”
RutgersPrep (3-4)0 NotreDame (3-4) 0 Goals —
Varga 3, Gleason, Ciatti, Coviello (RP), Henig, Mann, Okupski (ND).
Varga 2, Fiorello (RP), Henig 2 (ND). 21 (RP), 18 (ND).
Phillips 9 (RP), Brady 9 (ND).
Assists — Shots — Saves — 2 0 4 2 0 — 1 — 6 3