IN FORM: Hun School boys’ lacrosse player Griffin Moroney sends the ball up the field last Saturday in Hun’s 17-6 win over visiting Blair. Senior attackman Moroney tallied three goals and an assist in the contest as the Raiders improved to 2-0. In upcoming action, Hun plays at Don Bosco on April 7, at Lawrenceville School on April 9, and at Princeton Day School on April 11. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Griffin Moroney has gotten off to a hot start this spring as he has joined the attack unit of Hun School boys’ lacrosse team.

The 6’0, 190-pound senior, who played on the second midfield last spring, scored two goals in Hun’s 14-8 win over Georgetown Prep (Md.) in its season opener and then added three goals and an assist last Saturday as the Raiders rolled to a 17-6 win over the Blair Academy.

In reflecting on his scoring prowess, Moroney credited his linemates, senior Owen Black and post-graduate Luke Prybylski.

“Luke, Owen, and I have played together for a couple of summers and Owen has been here for the last few years,” said Moroney, noting that the trio has competed for the Tri-State Lacrosse club program.

“We have some good chemistry going. I am the inside guy, they do most of the work. They pass me the ball and I have the easy job of just throwing it in the net. It is easy for me.”

In the game against Blair, the Raiders got off to a very good start, jumping out to an 8-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.

“It was good for the upperclassmen to get the game going, take control, get up by a few goals so we could get the younger guys in,” said Moroney. “We have been working well all spring and it is nice to see it pay off.”

Starting off the spring with the big win over perennial power Georgetown Prep (Md.) on March 22 gave the Raiders an early boost.

“It was big for us to get out here against another opponent besides ourselves in practice,” said Moroney, who is headed to Salisbury University where he will be playing for the school’s men’s lacrosse team. “They were a well respected opponent and we took care of business.”

Coming off a 19-1 campaign in 2015 which saw Hun win its first state Prep A title since 1998 and climb into the top 5 in the national rankings has served as motivation for Moroney and his teammates this spring.

“I think there is more pressure from the outside people; we know it is a new year, it is a new team,” said Moroney.

“There are a lot of different faces so we have to work just as hard, if not more than last year, to exceed what we did.”

Hun head coach M.V. Whitlow was happy to give some new faces and hard-working reserves the chance to see the field in the Blair win.

“It was an opportunity to get better,” said Whitlow. “Blair hustled real hard and Blair is well coached. It gave us an opportunity to test our depth a little bit. I think our depth showed that they could play. The thing about this team that is great is that a lot of the guys are program guys that have been with us; freshmen are sophomores now and sophomores are juniors.”

Whitlow likes the way Moroney is playing in his new position. “Griff has stepped up, he had a great hockey season and he is a very committed student athlete,” said Whitlow.

“He started for us last year in the second midfield and now he has moved down to attack. He gives us nice work on attack, he gives us maturity, and he is a competitor. He works hard and he is definitely a team-first guy.”

Hun got some good work on defense as its starters stifled the Buccaneers.

“I was really happy with the shortstick defensive middie play of Chris Renna, that is a position that is unheralded and goes unnoticed,” said Whitlow.

“He really solidifies our defensive midfield with some of the things that he does. Our longsticks in the midfield are developing, Jake Keller is a sophomore and he makes some plays. Chris Fake and Kyle Horihan are defensive stalwarts with Jon Levine in the net. They are back there communicating; it really creates a solid foundation.”

In Whitlow’s the program’s success last spring has laid a foundation for this year’s group.

“Last season comes up a lot, we don’t hide from it,” said Whitlow, whose team is ranked No. 3 in the Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse National Power Rankings.

“We address it all the time. We have to measure our success by our own standards. We won’t let anybody else do that to us. If anything, what last season did was made us aware of who we are. We are not going to shy away from challenges. We know that we are humble and hungry and we are going to work hard.”

With some hard games coming up, Whitlow is looking for his players to home in on making progress daily.

“The focus now turns into every day, you are only as good as your last practice, your last game,” said Whitlow, whose squad plays at Don Bosco on April 7, at Lawrenceville School on April 9, and at Princeton Day School on April 11.

“We are game to game to game now. We are really into the season now, we are focused on the moment.”

In Moroney’s view, the players are on board with Whitlow’s approach.

“We just need to keep playing as a team,” said Moroney. “One of our mottos is that ‘one is none.’ We won today but there are going to be some other more challenging games coming up and we need to focus on getting better every day.”