CENTRAL PARK: Princeton High boys’ lacrosse player Alex Park heads upfield in recent action. Last Thursday, junior attackman Park scored two goals to help PHS defeat Pennington 10-2 as it earned its first win of the season. The Little Tigers, who moved to 1-3 with a 6-3 loss at Monroe on Saturday, are slated to host Montgomery on April 14 before playing at WW/P-North on April 16. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Having scored a total of six goals in losing its first two games this season, the Princeton High boys’ lacrosse team was looking to break out when it hosted Pennington last Thursday.

“We are just working to come together on offense,” said PHS junior attackman Alex Park.

“We have a couple of guys returning and we are trying to build up the young guys and get on the same page.”

After PHS fell behind Pennington 1-0, Park helped get the Little Tigers on the right page. Junior Evan Filion got the Little Tigers in the board with 6:38 left in the first quarter and Park followed with a tally 24 seconds later to put PHS up 2-1.

“We got some good spacing, it is our offense working as a unit,” said Park, reflecting on his goal. “That is where we need to go and that is what we are doing.”

PHS kept going offensively, pulling away to a 10-2 victory to break into the win column.

“It was great, it was a great confidence booster,” said Park in assessing the triumph which saw him add a fourth quarter goal.

“We had a great practice yesterday; we worked on our offense a lot. I love seeing the improvement that we made. It took us a while but we got clicking. We shared the ball, our goals were distributed. We still have work to do; I like where we are going.”

Park has worked hard to be a better player. “I play for the Blue Star club program,” said Park. “I think that has helped me with communicating on the field with the guys.”

PHS head coach Chip Casto believes Park is going to be a big help for his squad this spring.

“Alex works in the weight room and he is a club player, so he is committed,” said Casto. “He plays hard every game.”

While Casto was happy to see his team post its first victory, he acknowledged that it needs to be much sharper.

“It is always good to get a win, we have been working on the basics but there were still a lot of mistakes,” said Casto, who also got two goals apiece from Filion and freshman Patrick McDonald with Jay Jackson, Ben Drezner, Ben Quinones, and Dyan Westerman adding one each.

“We were executing basic stuff, things that I think we should have been doing already. This team is a different team from last year, so they are moving in their own pace.”

Senior tri-captains Ryan Farrell, Ian Jacobs, and Patrick Jacobs did some good stuff as the defensive end for the Little Tigers against Pennington.

“It is senior heavy, we have got good balance there,” said Casto. “As long as they are disciplined and poised, they can really help control things.”

Going forward, PHS is looking to develop more discipline when it comes to the basics.

“We need to keep building the foundational blocks to success,” said Casto, whose squad moved to 1-3 with a 6-3 loss at Monroe on Saturday and is slated to host Montgomery on April 14 before playing at WW/P-North on April 16. “Tomorrow will just be banging away at the fundamentals that we need to build on to have success.”

Park, for his part, believes the Little Tigers can enjoy success this spring if they keep things simple. “We just need to be playing as a team and moving the ball,” said Park. “I think we can play well together.”