END GAME: Princeton High boys’ lacrosse star Kirby Peck heads upfield in recent action. Last Saturday, senior midfielder Peck scored two goals but it wasn’t enough as 13th-seeded PHS fell 9-6 to No. 20 Fair Lawn in the opening round of the Group 3 state tournament. The defeat left the Little Tigers with a final record of 10-9. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

It has been a grueling May for the Princeton High boys’ lacrosse team.

Coming into its Group 3 state tournament opening round contest last Saturday morning against visiting Fair Lawn, PHS has played five games since May 8, including a draining 8-7 overtime loss to Princeton Day School on Thursday in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals.

Looking flat, the 13th-seeded Little Tigers fell behind 3-0 in the first quarter against the 20th-seeded Cutters and found themselves trailing 4-1 at halftime.

PHS head coach Peter Stanton could sense that his players were dragging a little bit.

“The last couple of weeks, we have played Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, everybody is in the same position but we are a little worn down,” said Stanton.

“Getting to this point required some overachieving; it was about all we had left in the tank.”

Summoning up what energy was left, PHS drew to within 6-3 with 3:23 left in the third quarter. But the Cutters tacked on two goals late in the period and went on to a 9-6 win.

While Stanton was disappointed to see the season come to an end, he liked the way his team fought to the final whistle.

“Whatever game we are in, whatever the situation is, we always want our players to say at the end of the game that they played their hardest and they left it all on the field,” said Stanton, who got two goals apiece from Alex Rifkin, Kirby Peck, and Matt Purdy in the defeat as his team finished the season at 10-9.

“We wanted our guys to make more plays and be a little more aggressive to make an effort they could be proud of.”

In reflecting on the spring, Stanton praised his team’s capacity to improve. “We are proud that we had some situations where we lost games to teams and bounced back,” said Stanton.

“We lost to HoVal in our opener and the second time we played them, we took them. We lost to North [WW/P-N] in a one-goal game and we beat them later. We lost to South [WW/P-S] in a one-goal game and we came back and beat them. So in a lot of those challenge situations, we showed improvement the second time around. We are pleased that our guys didn’t get discouraged by bad results.”

Stanton credited his core of seniors with helping the Little Tigers rise to the challenge.

“I think Kirby Peck and Alex Rifkin really wanted to put the team on their back and carry them as far as they could,” asserted Stanton.

“Elliot Wilson in goal had some really magical moments. Coleman Preziosi was someone that other teams always looked at as a weapon.”

The Little Tigers had a secret weapon in spiritual leader Tom Sacchetti, a senior who provided special emotional support after suffering a season-ending injury in the preseason.

“Tom didn’t see the field once this year but he came to every practice that he could,” said Stanton.

“He helped us out so much on the sideline. It is just an amazing kid who had zero percent chance of getting on the field but gave so much to the team. That is the kind of character that is really hard to replace.”

The Little Tigers have some talent in place to maintain the program’s winning tradition with such returning players as Matt Purdy, Matt Olentine, Zach Halliday, Kevin Halliday, Jack Persico, Pat McCormick, Matt Corrado, Stephen Clark, and Jack Andres.

“We love our underclassmen; we have a good number of them,” said Stanton.

“Our sophomores were really able to make a lot of plays this year. We had some freshmen contribute. We had kids on JV who we think are really going to be good players.”

In order to be really good, those young players will need to embrace a heightened work ethic.

“Hopefully what we learned is what it takes to be really successful,” added Stanton.

“More and more with the athleticism of the game and the skill level of the game improving all across the board, it requires some effort year round. Guys have to go to the weight room. Guys have to spend time at the wall. Guys have to spend time in the offseason on the game and I think our guys understand that.”