OCEAN CITY – After an even first quarter, the Red Raiders boys lacrosse team blew out its visiting rivals 19-8 Thursday, April 20, running away from Mainland in the second and third quarters.
“It’s a rivalry game,” Raider Charlie Schutta said. “We’ve beat them the past five years, why not do it again? We wanted this one really bad because they were talking a lot, and we got it.”
After the teams went nearly blow for blow in the early going, Ocean City (4-3) outscored the Mustangs (5-1) 13-2 in the middle stanzas, eventually invoking the running clock in the final minutes.
“We found another gear,” Schutta said. “We’re a second-half team and we have to be a first-half team too. We’ve got to play the whole game the whole time. We found it today and we got after it.”
“I told our guys, this game, a lot of it falls on them,” Raiders head coach Joe LaTorre said. “Not in a bad way, but coaches can only do so much. We try and set them up for success, and this is one of the best groups I’ve had in 11 years in terms of character, coachability and attitude. These guys are just tough as nails.”
The game grew more and more physical as it wore on, likely a result of both the rivalry and the lopsided score.
“I talked to them about keeping your emotions in check,” LaTorre said, “and I thought we did a pretty good job. I know in rivalry games there’s a lot of trash talk. But I told them at the end of the day none of those words matter. The score is the only thing that matters.”
“Play fast, play physical, that’s our motto,” Schutta said. “We get after it every day in practice, and that showed here today.”
Many of the Raider goals came right at the doorstep as they found their teammates for easy finishes.
“Their defense, their slides were inconsistent,” Schutta said. “You have to read it, so that’s what we did and we capitalized on it.”
Raider junior Pat Grimley, already a two-time 50-goal scorer, was outstanding as he put up 6 goals to go with 5 assists. He leads the team this season with 20 goals and 17 assists.
“Pat is a leader out there,” Schutta said. “He’s calling the plays out as we’re going. He calls something and you watch it happen as he’s saying it. It’s just really cool to watch and it’s awesome to play with him.”
Schutta had an excellent outing as well, finishing with 5 goals and 3 helpers.
“I wanted this so bad,” Schutta said. “I wanted this last week and all this week. I wanted this rivalry game.”
The entire Raider offense was humming.
“In winter league lacrosse we knew it was going to click,” Schutta said. “And it did.”
Joe DeGataeno led Mainland with 2 goals and 2 assists. The senior also leads his team this season with 19 goals and 18 assists. Teammate Jack Venneman had 2 goals and an assist and Jack Walcoff, Harrison LaMonica and Jack Kwapinski had 1 goal each. Jude Maurer had 2 assists. Goalie Carter Mostecki made 13 saves
For Ocean City, Jack Davis had 3 goals and 2 assists, Chayston Labarr had 2 goals and 2 assists, and Bryce Hanin, Paul Tjoumakaris and Dylan Dwyer had a goal each. John Moyer provided 2 assists.
“That was a good Mainland team,” LaTorre said. “That wasn’t some slouch team; they’re a quality team and we have to play them later in the season in their place. Then we’ll probably see them again in the CAL (Cape-Atlantic League) playoff and after that in the Group III South playoff. So we’re not hanging our hat on today, we have a lot of work to do.”
The Raiders were coming off tough losses to out-of-conference powerhouses.
The program has made a point to play these outstanding programs in recent years to better prepare for postseason success.
“We’ve been going through lately with our schedule and some unfortunate injuries,” LaTorre said. “Every time we just battle through it and find a way to win. The last two games before this were pretty tough but we were playing two top-10 teams. One of them is top-three and has more D-1 kids than I have subs. But these kids show up every time and I can’t be more proud.”
“Coming off Don Bosco and Manasquan, it’s a huge lift in play style,” Schutta said. “We brought it to them today.”
“It makes us thankful,” Schutta said, “not that they aren’t in our league but that we can come back and whoop on somebody and go for a South Jersey Group III championship.” The Raiders fell 13-11 to Shawnee later in the week.
“The beauty of the out-of-conference games is they show us what we need to fix,” LaTorre said. “I tell them all the time – mistakes are opportunities to learn. We’ve made a lot of mistakes in those big games and we found ways to learn and get better.”
The teams will meet again at Mainland at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 9.
“Somehow they were up in power points,” Schutta said. “We’re going to get up and we’re going to show New Jersey what we’re all about.”
The Red Raiders are at Southern Regional at 4 p.m. Friday. The Mustangs are at Absegami at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday and home against Lower Cape May Regional at 4 p.m. Friday.
Photos by DAVID NAHAN
By KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports
