Seniors Lead The Way in Dominating 17-10 Win Over Southern
By Mike Ready
WEST LONG BRANCH – Down 2-0 to Southern Regional three and a half minutes into the Shore Conference Tournament boy’s lacrosse final, Rumson Fair Haven’s senior-laden team scored six unanswered goals to take a 6-2 lead after one quarter en route to a 17-10 statement-making win Tuesday afternoon at Monmouth University’s Kessler Field.
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The game wasn’t nearly as close as the seven-goal margin of victory indicated, as the No.1 seeded Bulldogs (14-3) thoroughly dominated the second-seeded Rams (15-2) in winning their Shore Conference Tournament record fourth straight title - fifth overall - and improved to 57-1 versus Shore teams since 2011.
With 18 seniors on the team, this Rumson squad, ranked No.20 in the Star Ledger poll, is loaded with talent as well as leadership, which touches each-and-every player donning a Bulldog uniform.
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After falling behind, four different seniors scored in the first-quarter six-goal assault on the Rams, with sophomore attacker Robbie Garavante also chipping in a goal.
Senior midfielder Chris Sutphen (three goals) got the ball rolling, rifling a high shot over goalie Brendan Lefanto’s far shoulder at 8:35, and Garavante (three goals) got the equalizer two minutes later, circling the goal mouth from behind the net and sticking it in over Lefanto’s right shoulder.
You could feel the panic setting in on the Southern sidelines at this point. Then, when Sutphen netted his second goal of the quarter for a 3-2 Bulldog lead, panic had turned to shock.
A holding call on the ensuing faceoff gave the Bulldogs the ball and senior midfielder Chris Hubler (four goals and one assist) took it all the way to the net and beat Lefanto for a 4-2 lead. A minute later at 4:10 senior attacker Colin Shea (two goals and two assists) scored on an overhand shot to put Rumson up by three before senior attacker Dominic Padula (three goals) spun with his back to the goal and wind-milled it past Lefanto for the 6-2 advantage after one quarter of play.
Six different players helped the Bulldogs go on a 16-4 run from the first quarter through the 8:30 mark of the fourth quarter, when first-year head coach Andy Eastwood began emptying his bench.
Eastwood, who took over for Rumson’s legendary coach Reid Jackson, has been a part of Rumson’s lacrosse program since its inception and knew exactly what he was stepping into.
“They’re a special group,” Eastwood said. “They’ve been playing as a group since third or fourth grade, and they play as a team and for each other. There’s a lot of leadership on this team, and I don’t have to give them a lot; I just try not to mess it up. I’m real proud and happy for them as a group.”
“We knew they were a good team and were going to come out strong,” Hubler, said. “ Every team goes on runs, and we knew we couldn’t get down on ourselves. We responded and went on a run too.”
The game was a rematch of last season’s SCT final, won by the Bulldogs 14-5, and the Rams had good reason to believe this would be their year.
Ranked ninth in the state by LAXPOWER and having won 15-straight games since their season opening 8-6 loss to Lenape, Southern had been steam rolling through the Shore Conference, averaging 15 goals a game with a 12-goal margin of victory. They’re an offensive juggernaut led by junior attackman Dylan Jinks, the Shore Conference’s leading goal scorer and fourth in New Jersey with 73 entering Tuesday’s game.
But It wasn’t to be for the Rams, for as good as the Bulldog offense was, the defense was just as good. Senior defenseman JT Jennings was given the unenviable task of guarding Jinks with the hope of slowing him down and preventing him from doing too much damage.
Jennings shadowed Jinks the entire game and did just that. He kept the ball off Jinks stick and made him work hard for his shots, not giving up anything easy. Jennings held Jinks to two goals in the first half, one in the third quarter and one meaningless goal in the fourth. Jennings finished with four takeaways and two ground balls.
“That’s two high school All-Americans going at it. That’s a fun matchup to watch,” Eastwood said. “We play a team defense and we try to get the right matchups, but we have confidence in all six guys that are out there at all times.”
“We knew he was the focal point of their offense and everything ran through him,” Jennings said. “We got a couple turnovers on him and he got a couple good looks, but at the end of the day we got the best of him.”
Senior midfielder Brian Patterson was in the middle of the action at both ends of the field making plays all day long, and came up with five ground balls.
“We knew Jinks was a good player so we knew we had to put a good pull on him,” Patterson said. “J.T. did a good job on him and we really just played the kind of the defense we always do. It was just a great defense, great pulls and the middies worked really hard; just a great defensive effort.”
In addition, Bulldog goalie Bryce Metzger was stellar in the nets, making six saves in three quarters of play. Logan Pagano came on in the fourth to make four stops.
Southern’s faceoff specialists (FOGO) senior Bill Dowd (16 wins) and Rumson-Fair Haven FOGO Ryan Campbell (13 wins) competed fiercely in one of the best faceoff battles of the year.
Garavante, Padula, Hubler and Sutphen all scored in the second quarter as the Bulldogs went into halftime leading 10-3.
Hubler, a John Hopkins University signee, poked in a loose ball just outside the crease 18 seconds into the second half and Padula slipped a shot inside the far post less than two minutes later as the lead grew to 12-4. Jinks retaliated with a goal before Shea found Hubler and junior midfielder Lucas Seckler for goals and a 14-5 lead at the end of three quarters.
Garavante, Shea - a Boston College recruit - and senior midfielder Avery Mellinger completed the scoring for the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter.
“We had a lot of poise, we valued the ball and we worked our sets,” Eastwood said. “There’s a great foundation in the Rumson program. Eleven years ago we were working on fundamentals, now we’re doing a lot of sophisticated stuff; these kids have skill sets. We’re not going anywhere, we’re here to stay.
Overall, only three schools, Rumson-Fair Haven (five SCT titles), CBA (four SCT titles) and Red Bank Catholic (one SCT title) have won the SCT in its 10-year history. RFH has also played in six straight SCT finals and has made the most SCT final appearances with eight.
