WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall Prep lacrosse team won two matches last week to raise its record to 15-6 on the season and six consecutive victories.
On Wednesday, May 29, at Brendan P. Tevlin Memorial Field in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Non-Public “A” quarterfinals, the Pirates defeated St. Augustine, 12-1.
The Pirates were led by junior Joe DelMauro, who scored five goals and two assists, while senior Tyler Juhlin scored four goals with two assists. At the faceoff X, senior Luigi Pantano won 11 of 17 faceoffs.
Following the game, DelMauro said, “I felt good out there and I had a lot of opportunities to score and I finished my
shots. Our defense didn’t give them many chances as we shut down their best player.”
In attendance was former high school All-American and current college All=American Shawn Lyght, who plays for the NCAA Division I champions University of Notre Dame.
Lyght commented he “feels great to be back where it all started and it is great to support the boys.”
On Saturday, June 1, the Pirates hosted Delbarton in the semifinals and defeated the Green Wave, 10-4, to reach the championship, which will be held Thursday, June 6, at Kean University in Union against Don Bosco Prep at 7 p.m.
Delbarton jumped out to a 2-0 lead before senior Luke Knezovic scored on an assist by DelMauro with 4:42 left in the first quarter. Senior Christian Schweiger tied the score with an unassisted goal with 3:02 left.
The Pirates took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Knezovic on an assist by Schweiger with 9:36 left in the second quarter, before Delbarton tied the score just 1:08 later. Schweiger provided a 4-3 lead when he dodged after a restart and connected from close range with 1:03 to go before intermission.
In the third quarter, Pantano won the first four faceoffs and five of six as the Pirates exploded for five goals. Juhlin launched the quarter off a feed by Schweiger 1:38 into the quarter, and
DelMauro connected 1:11 later for a 6-3 lead.
Just over two minutes later, senior Patrick Quinn forced a turnover with a stick check and Juhlin capitalized with a goal in transition for a 7-3 lead with 6:47 left. Knezovic made it 8-3 with an unassisted goal with 2:58 left and Schweiger scored off a pass from DelMauro to make it 9-3 with 1:27 left.
Following the match, Knezovic said, “We know we haven’t beaten them in the state tournament in years and this was our senior year and we had to get the job done.” Schweiger said, “We had a little bit of nerves coming in, but then we used those nerves to our advantage and turned that into energy, especially in the third quarter.”
Quinn said, “We just got to do what we have been doing in practice every day. Our offense is the best in the state and we know going against them is harder than going against any other teams in games.”
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