SENIOR-DOMINANT SHORE REGIONAL LAX WILL LEAVE BEHIND LASTING LEGACY By Mike Ready

WEST LONG BRANCH – Four years in the making, Shore Regional is off to a blazing start to the season with arguably the best team in the boys lacrosse program’s relatively short 10-year history.

 

Undefeated at 9-0 and ranked third in the Shore Conference, the Blue Devils feature a lineup largely made up of seniors with many of them being four-year starters. Seven of 11 starter are seniors, including six of their seven leading scorers.

 

“They are such good role models because since they’ve been here four years they’ve been through the good, the bad and the ugly,” said head coach Greg Malfa, who started Shore’s boys lacrosse program 10 years ago after a highly successful stint as the girls lacrosse coach winning a state title in 2007 and making three trips to the finals. “And they can transition that down to the younger players and tell them what it takes to work hard and build a program and what they need to do to make it to the next level and that’s important. When you have that type of leadership and role models we have, that’s going to make our younger guys better in the future.”  

 

Mix those seniors in with a group of talented underclassmen that have a boatload of experience and you have, according to Malfa, the most complete boys team he’s had since he’s been here.

 

“I couldn’t be happier with this team,” said Malfa. “We’re very much stressing the team aspect this year. I’ve had larger teams as far as numbers-wise in the past and we may be a little smaller in numbers this year, but the quality of the player is better than it’s ever been.”   

 

Senior midfielder and captain Gil Goldsmith, who’s committed to RPI, where he’ll play both football and lacrosse, epitomizes the team concept that Malfa aspires to instill in his players.

 

Goldsmith was a first-team All-Shore selection a year ago when he led the team in goals (45) and assists (57) while leading the Shore Conference with 146 ground balls.

 

This season, while still scoring 17 goals and leading the team in assists (34) along with 61 ground balls, his stat sheet may not end up as gaudy as a year ago even though he’s taken his game to the next level.

 

With the Blues Devils’ average margin of victory hovering around a whopping 14 goals per game, Goldsmith has unselfishly surrendered playing time and a chance to pad his stats in order to give reserves an opportunity to get on the field knowing it will help the team’s depth down the road.

 

“That’s a testament to his credit,” said Malfa. “He’s the absolute epitome of the team player. He’ll come off the field in the first quarter and he’s like, ‘I don’t need to be on the field anymore, it’s better if we give these guys runs.’ He knows the deeper we are as a team the further we’re going to go. He could be in there scoring three or four goals but he knows we’re going to be deeper and better for it.  

 

“You only get very few kids like him,” Malfa added. “I’ve been doing this game a long time between travel teams and coaching different high schools and you don’t get a kid like that very often.”

 

Goldsmith, who according to Malfa is mature beyond his age and an excellent student as well, has a knack of taking things in stride.

 

“I’m not looking to just go out there and try to take over a game to get the numbers I had last year,” Goldsmith said. “It’s not just one person putting the ball in the back of the net, it’s kind of like a combination of everyone with myself, Jack McCrae, Jake Turner, Tom Bocco, Jamie Mazzacco – all of us putting in the work. Being undefeated is great and all, but I feel the main component to that is the balance we have this year. At the end of the day nobody cares who’s scoring goals as long as we’re winning.”

 

An All-Division attackman a year ago when he scored 40 goals and assisted on 24 others, Turner (35 goals, 22 assists) is having another outstanding season playing upfront with fellow seniors Bocco (28 goals, 12 assists), Justin Murphy (15 goals, 17 assists) and Nick Crochet (seven goals, two assists).

 

At midfield, Goldsmith is joined by McCrae, who’s already surpassed last season’s scoring totals with 23 goals and 18 assists, along with the freshman Mazzacco (12 goals, 11 assists) and Terry Carlstron (five goals, seven assists).

 

Malfa has been pleased with the play of his defense that had to replace All-Division defender John Salerno, but brought back senior Gunnar Schuelzky who heads up the backline along with juniors Ryan Dolan and Liam Rempel.

 

“Our defense has been very good,” said Malfa. “We try to measure ourselves defensively on how many offensive possession we have and what they’ve done with those possessions and what they’re doing to help out the offense. The guys do a really good job of keeping the shots (on goal) limited for Scott (two-year starting goalie Scott Sirianni) and securing the ball on the defensive end allowing our guys to transition into the offensive end.”

 

Junior longstick midfielder Jake Shirley is back after picking up All-Division honors a year ago and is one of the most versatile players on the team. Sophomore Sean O’Brien took over the full-time faceoff duties this season and has been tremendous winning 155 of 213 faceoffs while leading the team with 69 ground balls.

 

Shore has a chance to win the program’s first-ever division championship when they square off against B South opponent Lacey this Saturday.  

 

“Our first goal this season is winning the division which we’ve never done as a program,” said Goldsmith. “That’s really on our mind and we want to be that first team to capture that division championship.”

 

Another goal of the team is to get past the quarterfinal round in the state tournament which they’ve never done.

 

“The first goal we set is to compete and try to win the division,” Malfa said when asked how far he thinks this team can advance in the postseason. “The second goal is to compete for a Shore Conference championship and the third is to make it deep into the state playoffs. I think they’re capable of doing it, but Group I has some tough, tough programs, including Manasquan, which is arguably one of the best teams in the state, Madison and Mountain Lakes just to name a few. And teams like that are very seasoned, veteran teams that are used to getting to championship games. Those guys are our measuring blocks and if we can do half of what they do I think we’ll do pretty well.”

 

Malfa knows how much it would mean to his seniors and to the program if they could bring home the program’s first division title Saturday but the seniors have a way of putting things in perspective.  

 

“That would be really, really huge for the program,” he said. “Again, that would be our first one in the history of the program and I try not to put too much on it but when you can do something for the first time in any program that’s huge. Especially for these seniors. I’ve been asking them, ‘What do you want to leave behind as your legacy,’ and that title would be a huge thing not only for the team and the program, but for these seniors that came in and have started for the last three or four years for me. Even though I talk about that stuff, they still pledge the team concept in every aspect, so I hope they reach our goal because I want them to leave a lasting legacy and that would be great for these seniors.”

 

UPDATE: Shore Regional clinched the program’s first-ever division championship Saturday, routing previously undefeated Lacey, 15-2, improving to 10-0 and finishing undefeated in B South.

 

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