Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
Sal Guastella took time out to reflect on the season his Holmdel High School girls’ lacrosse team just completed.
“We’ve won a lot of close games in a really close division,” Guastella said. “That’s really what’s done it. We’ve been able to win games even when trailing and stuff like that. It helped us a lot. We’re 11-8. And we’ve played well against good teams. We haven’t always won, but we played well against them.”
Holmdel season came to an end when the Hornets were defeated by Ocean Township, 9-8, in the quarterfinals of the Central Jersey, Group 2 state tournament on May 16 at Ocean Township.
Holmdel had held a 6-4 lead at the half but Ocean stormed out finish with a 5-2 showing to advance to the state sectional semifinals.
Guastella knew before the game that Holmdel’s defense would be tested against Ocean.
“Well, we can defend a little bit better without fouling.” Guastella said. “We can be a little more efficient on offense as well.”
Guastella was very proud of Holmdel’s success this season. He had hoped for a little bit longer of a ride through the state tournament.
“This was the rest of the season,” Guastella said. “Our expectation is that we would come out and play really hard. Hopefully, that would have been enough to get us a victory.”
Guastella pointed out some of the players who thrived this spring.
“Our team starts with our best defender and captain, [senior] Erin Shields,” Guastella said. “She usually had to play a really good game. Get loose balls and defend well. On offense, it evolves around [junior attack] Kinsey Clark, [junior] Erin Mendini, and [junior attack] Sam DiMaio. Those three always need to play well. Our midfielders, Mendini again, along with [freshman midfielder] Jules Brown, as well as the other freshman that we play. We needed them all to step up and play hard.”
