INSPIRATIONAL MOTTO: Princeton High boys’ lacrosse player Nevin Motto heads up the field in a game this spring. Senior defender Motto’s scrappy play helped PHS go 9-5 and advance to the North Jersey Group 3 sectional quarterfinals. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

It was something that the Princeton High boys’ lacrosse team had been waiting for years to do.

Having traditionally been a state tournament participant on an annual basis, PHS made its first appearance in the competition after an extended absence when it hosted Morris Knolls in the first round of the North Jersey Group 3 sectional earlier this month.

“It has been talked about a lot in terms that we hadn’t played a state game since 2017,” said PHS head coach Chip Casto.

“We missed it two years on row in ’18 and ’19 and then obviously ’20 so they were determined to get a state win.”

The Tigers showed some nerves in their return to the states as they trailed 2-1 after the first period and the foes were tied 4-4 at halftime in the June 1 contest.

“We came out kind of slow and sluggish; I am from northern Jersey and I know that these teams that have .500 records coming out of the north are battle-tested,” said Casto.

“They came and proved it. They came tough, they came shooting and they came ready to play.”

PHS, though, seized momentum in the third quarter outscoring Morris Knolls 5-1 and going on to a 9-6 win.

“All year it has been a slow first quarter and a big third quarter,” said Casto.

“I feel like we were behind two goals every first quarter. It was the personality of the team to go ‘all right now, we have got to shift gears.’ It was a good win.”

It was a win to savor for the Tigers. “It was a great accomplishment and that is something they should celebrate, talk about and feel good about,” added Casto.

“That lasted for about 15 minutes and then the next practice we were working on Scotch Plains-Fanwood.”

Facing the high-powered Raiders in the sectional quarters two days later, PHS didn’t get off to a good start as it fell behind 8-2 in the first quarter and couldn’t dig out of that hole in losing 17-10.

“They are really battle-tested and they had a couple of players who were fantastic,” said Casto.

“They were up 4-0 in the first quarter and we battled back. It was 9-5 at one point and we had a man up. If you get down to three, it is a really important number in a comeback. If you get the next goal, you are only two behind and the momentum seems to shift. We got to 9-5 with an extra man, we missed a shot and they went down and scored. Then we fought back to 14-10 and we were man up again and didn’t get it and they scored. We fought until the end.”

With the Tigers ending up with a final record of 9-5, Casto was proud of what the program accomplished this spring.

“It was a positive year, one, because we appreciate having the opportunity to play because of dealing with COVID,” said Casto.

“Two, I would say we were basically overachieving. We didn’t quite know who we had and what we were going to work with.”

Junior star attacker Will Doran gave the PHS some great work this season, developing into one of the top scorers in the area.

“Will just shot up; he is one of this kids who knows the game so well that he makes people around him better,” asserted Casto.

“He had a great split, like 51 goals and 40 assists so it was really a balanced game. Everyone knew he would pass to them so they kept moving on offense. He was a great emerging force.”

Freshman Patrick Kenah emerged as a force, tallying 62 points on 35 goals and 27 assists.

“We had a senior get hurt in basketball, Charles Hamit, who was going to be a starting attackman,” said Casto.

“It is one of those things; it opens up a spot for this freshman and he ends up breaking the single-season freshman goal record at Princeton High and the single season point record. Patrick was just phenomenal for the role he was asked to play. He overachieved.”

Two stalwart seniors, Patrick McDonald and Sid Suppiah, took on important roles in the PHS attack with McDonald scoring 55 points on 28 goals and 27 assists and Suppiah chipping in 17 goals and 10 assists.

“With Patrick’s humbleness in knowing that Will was going to run the show and that Kenah was having a great year, he would look around and say it was my turn,” said Casto.

“He read the game well, he scrapped and got some fantastic ground balls for us. Sid had one goal and one assist, two goals and one assist, and three goals in our last three games. He started being a really consistent part of our offense.”

On the defensive send, senior goalie Austin Micale turned in some fantastic performances in his first full season of varsity action.

“Austin Micale ended up being our defensive MVP this year and was honorable mention all-conference,” said Casto, whose defensive unit also featured seniors Simon Sheppard, Nevin Motto, and Lucas Kirby also with junior Will Erickson.

“He just started playing better and better. I really, really wish he could come back next year. Lucas had a great year. There was a great emergence out of Will. He is a great communicator so he is going to be a pillar for the defense next year.”

The squad’s group of seniors was the pillar of the programs’ success this spring.

“They showed humbleness and appreciation; they kept reminding people this is a bonus, this is really special, so let’s keep working hard,” said Casto of his Class of ’21 which included Jack Lehman in addition to Kirby, Motto, McDonald, Micale, Sheppard, and Suppiah.

“They continued to model all of the things that we want to build our program on. They had really great on-field leadership.”

In Casto’s view, Motto exemplified the qualities of that class.

“Nevin was this year’s recipient of the Bobby Campbell award which is the award we give out every year in terms of the kid who has given the most to the program,” said Casto of Motto, who had 10 assists and scooped up 32 ground balls.

“Here is a guy who didn’t score any goals but he was an unbelievable contributor in terms of leadership, ground balls and defense. He did all of the little things which is what Bobby Campbell is known for.”

Casto is hoping some of those things will rub off on his crew of returning players.

“We have some goals and assists coming back so we need Rory [Dobson] who was a freshman goalie up get up to speed pretty quickly,” said Casto.

“He is going to be around for the next three years, he is committed to getting better this summer. For the freshman class there wasn’t really much of a JV season so we ended up practicing together basically. They got better but they didn’t get game better, they didn’t get enough game time. They are good kids and they saw a great senior class.”