WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall Prep lacrosse team, currently ranked No. 2 in New Jersey and No. 23 in the country, had a great week going 3-0 to remain undefeated at 5-0 on the season.
On Monday night, April 10, the Pirates traveled to Rutgers University to take on Chatham and defeated the Cougars 6-2. Seton Hall took early control scoring four goals in the first quarter. Senior Elijah Rippey opened the scoring at 10:35 which was followed by senior Matthew Pepe at 9:01, junior Tyler Juhlin at 6:05, and junior Luke Knezovic at 2:00. Chatham scored goals in the second and third quarter to cut the Pirate lead to 4-2 before Juhlin increased the Seton Hall lead to 5-2 at 9:11 of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Juhlin scored his third goal of the match on an assist by sophomore Nolan Sabel with 2:53 left. Junior Adam Angel had nine saves.
On Thursday, April 13, Seton Hall traveled to the Sea Girt Armory to take on Manasquan and defeated them 12-3. Knezovic led the scoring with four goals while junior Brad Schuster and Pepe each scored two goals. Rippey, Sabel, Juhlin and junior Christian Schweiger each scored a goal. At the face-off X, junior Luigi Pantano was 9-of-10 and sophomore Theodore Coyle was 5-of-7. Angel had five saves while sophomore Conor Keenan had one save.
Following the match, Angel was asked about his performance thus far this season. “It is pretty awesome because I have big shoes to fill in, ‘JAZ’ Zanelli who was an all-state goalie. I feel that I have done a good job helping my team thus far this season considering I played junior varsity last season.” About his performance, Knezovic said, “I am used to playing with these guys in club lacrosse and have a good chemistry and feel really comfortable.” Last season, Knezovic also played on the junior varsity.
On Saturday, April 15, the Pirates traveled to Underhill Field in Maplewood to take on Columbia and defeated the Cougars 14-0. Seton Hall jumped out to a 7-0 lead when with 5:08 left in the second quarter there was a one-hour weather delay. After the delay, the game was completed with no other disruptions. Pepe led the scoring with three goals and three assists while Juhlin, Schweiger, and Schuster each scored two goals. Rippey, Pantano, Knezovic, sophomore Joe DelMauro and senior Ryan Kim each scored a goal. Angel had five saves while senior Ryan Conroy had three saves to secure the shutout.
After the match, Pepe said, “Coach (Ross Turco) says no matter what the overall goal is, we need to run through our system. Even though we could get goals other ways, being unselfish, running our offense is the way we need to do it.”
Senior defenseman Shawn Lyght added, “We tell our offense every day in practice that we are giving them confidence. We think we are the best defense in the state, so they are going against the best defense every day in practice, and they beat us sometimes. The confidence they get in practice really helps them against opposing defenses.”
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