Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
Just a little fine tuning is all that Shore Regional High School’s boys’ lacrosse team needs to work on in what has been a fine season.
Shore Regional coach Gregg Malfa continues to preach fundamentals, to a unit that has won 11 of its first 13 games this spring.
“Really just cleaning up the little mental mistakes,” Malfa said. “Bad decisions. Bad passes. Communication on both offense and defense. Just the little things that prove that we can play a full 48-minute game without the mental lapses.”
The Blue Devils showed poise for 48 minutes on April 30 when they defeated Jackson Liberty High School, 12-8, in West Long Branch.
“I thought we finished the game strong,” Malfa said. “It was kind of a back and forth game. We wound up winning by four. We were only up by two for a while. It was a close game. We were able to play really good defense in the last three-or-four minutes of the game, get the ball back to our offense, and were able to put in two more goals to seal it at the end. I thought that was good, because we showed we could extend a lead when we need to.”
Malfa hopes to finish the regular season strong while the Blue Devils focus on the upcoming tournaments.
“We would like to finish the season winning the rest of our games,” Malfa said. “We have a few games left in the regular season before we go into the Shore Conference Tournament. Obviously, we would like to go far in the Shore Conference Tournament, and then hopefully go as far as we can in the state tournament.”
Malfa praised some of the key Shore Regional players.
“Our goalie, Scott Sirianni, has had a really good year so far,” Malfa said. “He’s a sophomore. He’s young. But, on the defensive end, he’s helped us quite a bit. On the offensive end, it’s really a series of guys, starting with Gil Goldsmith, our senior midfielder. He’s a do-it-all guy. Plays defense. Plays offense. Plays man-down offense as well. Ryan Morris, our senior attack, who is one of our leading scorers on the team. And, our junior midfielders, Jack McCrae and Jake Turner have also posted great numbers as well.”
The Blue Devils will continue to prepare for the post-season when they travel to play to Barnegat High School on May 10. The game starts at 4 p.m.
