by DANIELLE MIZRAHI Staff Writer
The Monroe Township High School boys’ varsity lacrosse team finished their season on May 25, 2013, 14 – 9, ending the season right after the state championship.
“We did have a great season. We have a lot seniors on the team and they made a big difference. We won the division final and played for county finals and now we played for the state championships, so this is by the far have been the most successful season,” said Head Coach Joseph Yannone.
The head coach, Mr. Yannone, is a history teacher at MTHS and has been coaching lacrosse for years now, helping to lead the team to the victories of the season.
“This the seventh year here at Monroe that they have had a boys team and I’ve been coaching all seven years. I started coaching lacrosse at another high school while working at Monroe, when I found out they were having a boys program here it was super exciting to start a brand new program at a school I’ve been teaching at for so long,” said Mr. Yannone.
Saturday was the last game the boys played this season for the state championship against Southern Regional. Sadly, they lost 19-5.
“I think the team put in a lot of hard work in the off season to get ready for the season and I think we played a tougher out of conference schedule this year against difficult teams that we normally don’t play to help us get ready for the play-offs. We have been practicing since March first, this has been the longest season on record and even though it has a been a long season the guys have had a lot of enthusiasm,” said Coach Yannone.
The boys did try very hard this season. They started strong and kept dominating their competition until the very end, finishing with scores like 20-0, and 22-0.
“I would say that we set very high goals especially for the seniors who we have been in the program for four years or three years. We knew this would be our most talented group so our goals were to win the county championship, even though we fell short of that we still made it to the state championships,” said Coach Yannone.
The team played a total of 23 games against various teams including South Brunswick, J.P. Stevens, Robbinsville, East Brunswick, Edison, Allentown, Old Bride, St. Joseph Metuchen, West Essex Regional, North Brunswick, Rutgers Prep, Lynbrook, Preddie School, St. Peter’s Prep, South Brunswick, Hunterdon Central, Jackson Memorial, and Freehold Township.
“I went to the Monroe vs. Old Bridge game because Monroe and Old Bridge are rivals, so it was going to be big game. Monroe played a zoned defense and caused Old Bridge to have a lot pressure on them. After, they were happy to beat their rivalries and celebrated. The team knew they were going to have a good season and tried really hard to make that happen,” said sophomore Tyler Turiano.
They won that game on March 16, 14-13.
“Both teams were really good, Monroe played hard so they could win,” said sophmore Audrey Orford.
The team has five captains Andy Dooley, Joe Collins, Zachary Pace, Zachary Wilson and Steve Montes, all seniors.
Are you proud of the boys?