6 days Ago
Bergen Catholic’s young offense was struggling to find its rhythm early in Tuesday’s game, though certainly not for any lack of opportunity. Because while that underclass-oriented group worked to smooth out the kinks against an unexpected Tenafly defensive scheme, its veteran defensive teammates were creating even larger kinks at the other end of the field. 4/15 - 4:15 PM Boys Lacrosse Final Tenafly 3 Bergen Catholic 8 “We were expecting a zone and they came out in man,“ sophomore attackman Trey Taromina said.
“We came out slow at first, but then we started firing away and really shooting the ball and really believing in ourselves. And our defense played lights out and that really helped,” he said. Taromina grew comfortable enough to produce a career-high three goals, and that defense held Tenafly far below its season average to send 20th-ranked Bergen Catholic to an 8-3 victory in a cross-divisional NJILL battle in Oradell.
Tenafly (3-2) struck first with the first of three goals from junior attackman Jesse Damashek 2:45 into the game, but was able to get precious little else after that against a stick-checking, lane-clogging Crusader defense manned by seniors Nathan Johnston, Ian Holmes and Jack Walker, junior Joseph Angeli and upstart sophomore Owen Anderson on the poles, and hard-working Steven Copeland, Dylan Carrick and Frank Doolry flying around with the shortsticks. “We’ve been going every day in practice - me, Joe, Ian, Walker and Owen,” Johnston said. “We’ve been training hard, practicing getting on hands, and it’s starting to show in the games.
We were having caused turnover after caused turnover to help out the offense. “Offense got off slow, but we made sure that we were able to hold it down,” he said. “Once the offense got hot, we were just rolling through the game, getting the ball down and then they were capitalizing on our success on defense," he said.
Bergen Catholic (4-3) forced five turnovers in the first quarter, yet Taromina and his gang came up empty on nine shot attempts and trailed, 1-0. He then swept across the box away from his man and buried a low roller from 10 yards out two minutes into the second quarter, and senior Eamon Twomey connected on a similar dodge 2:20 later for a 2-1 lead. Tenafly tied the game at 2-2 on Damashek’s left-handed blast on an extra-man opportunity, but sophomore Easton Tedesco and freshman Jack Gonzalez answered with unassisted dodges in the last 5:41 of the quarter to forge a 4-2 lead.
That activity was enough to send Tenafly back to its customary zone, though its offense found the same old stubborn Bergen Catholic defense waiting for its passers and shooters. Tenafly committed four more turnovers in the second quarter and was limited to three shots, and attempted only four in the third quarter as the Bergen lead grew to 6-3 on single goals from sophomore Dylan Usatine and Taromina. “We’re starting to see the offense put it together, and once we have that, we’ll start capitalizing on all those opportunities.
It’s going to be magic for us. We’re going to go very far throughout the counties and states," Johnston said. ( Check back soon for more details ) Mike Kinney can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.
com . Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeKinneyHS .The N.
J. High School Sports newsletter is now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now! Follow us on social: Facebook ’ Instagram ’ X (formerly Twitter.
