Curley’s Zach Alark, who scored one goal in  the Friars 17-2 win over Toms River North, charges into open space.

In
search of a little seasoning and perhaps a lesson or two, the Toms
River North boys lacrosse team ventured to Baltimore over the weekend
to test its mettle against 14th ranked Archbishop Curley.  For the
Mariners, in their just their fourth season of lacrosse, the lessons
were hard learned, as they suffered a 17-2 thrashing at the hands of
the host Friars, but the mission was accomplished for a squad looking
for exposure to a higher level of play and an opportunity to grow.

College
teammates at Roanoke University (VA), where they were both Division III
All-Americans in the early nineties, Curley coach Josh Latona and North
coach Brett Smith setup the game and the Curley lacrosse community
rolled out the red carpet for the Mariners.

North arrived in
Baltimore on Friday and each player was hosted at the home of a Curley
player.  Smith and his staff stayed with Latona, as both teams bonded
on a personal level.  The two squads then took to the field early
Saturday morning, before feasting on a spread prepared by the Friar C
Club, Curley’s booster group, and traveling together to Towson
University for a Division I college game matching Towson against Johns
Hopkins.

“It was a great experience.  We learned a lot,” said
senior attackman T.J. Heuschkel, who scored Toms River’s first goal
with a nifty move and shot from the right side of the cage, midway
through the second quarter.  “It was a good team obviously, so we’ll
take what we learned and go back to Toms River with it and hopefully
destroy the teams down there.”

Curley (14-1 overall) is 10-0 in
the MIAA’s B Conference.  Although not to be confused with the national
powers that hail in the MIAA A Conference, Curley is enjoying an
outstanding season and the Friars flashed their talent early and often
in this one.

Senior Kyle Ashe won the opening draw and raced to
the goal where he netted an unassisted score, just five seconds into
the contest.  Curley would go on to score six unanswered goals in the
first quarter and built a 9-0 lead before Heuschkel finally dented the
nets for Toms River, with 7:28 remaining in the first half.

Following
a tenth Curley goal, senior Brendan Hirtes put North on the board again
and the Mariners (5-2, 3-0) went to the half with a little momentum,
despite trailing 10-2.  The second half, however, was all Curley, as
the Friars scored seven more times and blanked North over the final two
quarters.

For the record, Curley junior Kevin Ruth had a monster
day, scoring five goals and handing out two assists, as he repeatedly
planted himself in open space in front of the North goal and converted
entry feeds.  Senior Doug Herdigan also had a seven point game for the
Friars, as he finished with four goals and three assists.

“This
is our fourth year as a program and we’ve made great strides with this
team, but it is good to see some lacrosse where the ball is moving
quickly and guys are getting up and down the field,” said Smith.  “I
think it opened our eyes to a lot of stuff we’ve been talking about. 
Now, we’ve got the kids to see it and it was certainly worth the trip.”

Curley’s
Latona also felt it was a good experience for his team as it readies
for the conclusion of its regular season and the playoffs.

“We
have to come out every game and execute â?? catch, throw, run the offense
and execute man-up and man-down,” said Latona, who’s staff includes
goalies coach Frank Romeo, a member of the same Roanoke teams which
included the two head coaches.  “I was pleased with what I saw today. 
We played a very good game.”

Steele Stanwick and Joe Cummings scored three
goals each to lead the Dons, while Jared Gangler and Tim Donovan scored
two each.  Loyola (9-2 overall) is now 6-2 in the league, a half game
back on second-place St. Paul’s and ahalf game in front of fourth-place
McDonogh.

Senior Tom Beach led St. Joe with four goals and an assist and Matt Hanzsche had one goal and three assists.

The
loss, St. Joe’s third straight, dropped the Gaels to 9-4 overall and
4-4 in the league.  They are tied for fifth-place with Calvert Hall,
which would put them in the playoffs if the season ended today.  St.
Joe, which missed the post-season on tie-breakers in each of the last
two years, however, still must play top-ranked Boys’ Latin (Tuesday)
and Gilman (Friday), both on the road.

In the first
game, John Kaestner and Alex Szczukowski combined for nine goals, while
Ray Witte tossed in a hat-trick to lead the Sabres.

Szczukowski
was just warming up, however, as he netted five goals in the second
game to give him nine on the day, to go with three assists.  Witte also
stayed hot with four goals and two assists in game two, while Kaestner
added another three points with a goal and two assists.

The
Sabres (11-2 overall) have now won five straight.  They are also 7-2 in
the MIAA B Conference, where they sit in second place in the Red
Division.  The Sabres will return to conference play on Monday when
they visit Park.

Saints Peter & Paul 19, Gunston 7
Goals:
G-Loar 3, Bethmann 3, Tilgman; SPP-Kaestner 5, Szczukowski 4, Witte 3,
Raffensberger 2, Marshall, Hovland, Wilson, Calvert, Clough.
Assists: G-Tilgman, Casey; SPP-Kaestner 4, Witte 3, Marshall 2, Szczukowski, Hovland.
Saves: G-Wharton 14; SPP-McQuaid 9.
Half: Saints Peter & Paul, 8-1.

Gibbons scored three in the
top of the second to tie the game and added single runs in the fourth
and fifth to get the lead.  Starter Sean Bertand, after allowing a
three-run home run to Curley’s Joe Hineline in the first, blanked the
Friars for the next four innings to get the win and John Koenig held
Curley scoreless over the final two frames to claim the save.

Curley
had Bertrand on the ropes all day, but he ended two bases load threats
by a claiming third-out strike outs.  In the sixth, the Friars again
loaded the bases, this time with no outs, but Koenig came on to shut
them down with three consecutive strike outs.

At the plate,
Robby Harris, who has hit safely in every game for Gibbons this season,
went 2-for-4 and drove in what proved t be the winning run in the
fourth.  Andrew Parker went 1-for-3 with a double and two runs  scored,
while Gregory Galloway was also 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

The Crusaders (9-7 overall) are now 8-6 in the league.  Curley fell to 8-15 overall and 3-11 in the conference.

Junior
Matt Siggins and sophomore Josh Sacks combined to post five goose eggs
as Chapelgate improved to 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference.  Sacks
has not given up an earned run this year.

The bats were led by
Freshman Tom Ruzzi, Brian Wilcox, Robbie Green, Scott Moran, Nick
Markowski and Siggins who all had multiple hits and extra base hits.

In 
a game played by two storied programs, each ranked #2 in their
respective region, at Princeton’s epic Class of ’52 Stadium, both teams
battled into overtime, where St. Paul’s prevailed, 12-11, as Thomas
Galvin netted the game-winning goal.

For St. Paul’s it was
another come-from-behind victory, as it battled back from a 6-3
halftime deficit.  The comeback started with six Crusader goals in the
third period, which narrowed the gap to 10-9.   St. Paul’s finally
knotted the game at eleven, on an extra-man goal, and then made a
valiant defensive stand to send the game into overtime.

Peter
Smyth dominated the face-offs for St. Paul’s in the second half and he
came up with the ball in the clutch in overtime to give the Crusaders
possession.  Galvin took over from there when he sprinted from the
middle of the field and beat the Trojan goalie on a blistering shot to
end the contest.  Smyth won 11-of-14 draws in the second half and
scored two goals.

St. Paul’s attackmen D.J. Hessler had two
goals and four assists and Cliff Larkin added three goals and two
assists to pace the Crusader offense.  Midfielder Chris Clements picked
up several big ground balls in the second half and fired in his 39th
and 40th goals of the season. Justin Donati also added a goal and an
assist and Galvin scored twice while adding an assist.

Gilman broke the ice with a single run
in the first, but the Gaels jumped on top with four in the home half of
the inning and tacked on two more in the third to move in front, 6-1. 
The Greyhounds made things interesting with three in the fourth and one
more in the sixth, but Gael starter Tommy Miller was able to labor his
way through six innings and Danny Druzgala came on to pitch a scoreless
seventh to nail down the historic victory.

“I’ve been blessed to
be able to have this job for 25 years and coach so many great players,”
said Norton last week.  “I consider myself an educator and I love to
teach – in the class room and on the field.  I love it and I want to
keep going until its not fun any more.”

St. Joe (13-9 overall)
was able to climb back above the .500 mark, at 7-6, in the A
Conference, where it sits in sixth-place.  Gilman fell to 4-10 overall
and 2-10 in the league.

Hill
helped his cause by knocking in four runs, on two hits [including a
double]. Darrell Anderson also had a great day at the plate, going 4-5,
with a triple, and three runs batted in.

Jack Carey led the assault with
a career day by going 4-for-5 with two doubles and two home runs,
including a grand slam and nine RBI.  Mike Moss and Jack Carey also
homered.

The Crusaders homered in each of the first three
innings, including Carey’s grand slam in a six-run third which gave St.
Paul’s a 10-0 lead.  Spalding tried to comeback with two in the bottom
of the third, as Joe McHale slashed a two-run single, but St. Paul’s
came right back with six in the fourth and closed with four in the
fifth.

Louey Mari went the distance for the win, allowing just seven hits.