Delaware Valley
Following a successful 14-7 campaign last spring, the Delaware Valley boys lacrosse team is faced with the big obstacle of replacing the vast majority of production from that team.
Gone are Ryan Neal (53 goals, 30 assists), Jack Bill (65 goals, 23 assists), Brock Kephart (37 goals, 13 assists), Brock Dautnton (92 ground balls and 159 draws won) and goalie Nicholas Catino (231 saves). The Terriers reached the semifinals of the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament and the South Jersey, Group 1 quarterfinals.
In total, Delaware Valley graduated 77 percent of its goal scoring from the 214 goals the Terriers scored last season.
Junior Will Fritsche (28 goals and 28 assists) and senior Dominic Cyphert (14 goals and five assists) are the most productive returning players from last season for the Terriers. The good news for Delaware Valleys is that it has built a consistent program under head coach Andrew Niebuhr that has finished .500 or better over the past four seasons. Thus, the new additions should be able to be acclimated quickly.
Delaware Valley competes in the Bianchi Division of the NJILL with Columbia, Cranford, Livingston, Madison, Millburn, Montclair Kimberley and St. Peter’s Prep.
Hunterdon Central
The Hunterdon Central boys lacrosse team will be looking to rebound off a losing season in 2023 – something that had not occurred in Flemington in any season since 2010.
Against their usual difficult schedule, the Red Devils finished 9-10. They lost a close 11-10 game to Pope John in the HWS final and suffered another one-goal loss to Montclair in the North, Group 4 quarterfinals.
Hunterdon Central will be looking at a difficult task to replace its lost offensive production as the Red Devils graduated a large portion of its scoring from last season. Sean Creter (55 goals, 12 assists), Jake Dvoor (39 goals, 26 assists), Trevor Frisch (30 goals, 41 assists) and Danny Loss (23 goals, 26 assists) have all moved onto the college level, including Creter playing at Maryland.
Those four players accounted for 147 of Hunterdon Central’s 186 goals scored last year. Griffin Meyer (17 goals and 14 assists) will be counted upon as the leader of the attack this season.
Hunterdon Central expects the strength of its team to be defense with John Flynn, Max Simon, Evan Amato and goalie Robbie Turnbull all returning. Some of the new players the Red Devils are looking for production from will be Liam Mansell (Sr., attack), Ethan Washington (Sr., attack), Jesse Foster, (Jr., defense) Jake Ditchey (Jr., Midfield) and Ben Critelli (Sr., midfield).
North Hunterdon
Following a disappointing 5-15 season last year, North Hunterdon has a new coach with Gil Swenson taking over the program.
From that team, the Lions have lost a huge percentage of their scoring. Seniors Trevor Brotons (43 goals, 63 assists), Patrick Egg (51 goals, 35 assists) and Matthew Parente (44 goals, 16 assists) combined to score 138 of the squad’s 177 goals.
Thus, North Hunterdon will be a young team this spring. However, the Lions do expect that they will be able to compete with everyone on their schedule.
Junior attack Trey Verderamo, who has committed to Long Island University, will be expected to lead the offense after having 17 goals and 15 assists as a sophomore. Other key returning players include Charlie Monsell (Jr., defense), Sam Spagnuolo (Sr., attack), Michael Schroek (Sr., midfield), Alec Mine (Jr., goalie) Colin Pettorsson (Jr., midfield) and Jake Monsell (Jr., midfield).
Voorhees
Despite finishing 7-12 last season, Voorhees was a very young team that has a great chance to be much improved this season.
The Vikings return many of their key scorers as they hope to take that next step as developing players. Fin Bruton (19 goals, 28 assists), Josh Hufford (25 goals, eight assists), Robert Bryan (61 percent draw win rate) Patrick McGeough (154 saves) and Jake Vernieri (161 ground balls) were all underclassmen last year and figure to be big players for Voorhees as they continue to mature.
The Vikings will look to get off to a good start this season after ending last year on an eight-game losing streak. Three of those games were one-goal losses. A winning season would be the first for Voorhees since the 2011-12 season.
Voorhees will compete in the NJILL Pooley Division against Hackettstown, High Point, Kinnelon, Lenape Valley, Newton, North Warren and Warren Hills.
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Matt Bove can be reached at hssports@njadvancemedia.com