STICKING WITH IT: Princeton High boys’ lacrosse player Archer Ayers heads upfield in action this spring. Senior star midfielder Ayers tallied 11 goals and eight assists this season to help PHS go 9-8.  (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Trailing Northern Highlands 11-5 at halftime in the first round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA North Jersey Group 3 tournament, the Princeton High boys’ lacrosse team could have thrown in the towel.

Instead, PHS battled back, outscoring the Highlanders 5-2 in the third quarter to turn the game into nail-biter.

While the rally fell short as the Tigers lost 14-12 in the May 26 contest to end the season at 9-8, PHS head coach Peter Stanton was proud of the way his players battled to the final whistle.

“The guys just didn’t want to go out like that, the guys didn’t want to get embarrassed,” said Stanton, a New Jersey Hall of Fame coach who returned to the helm of the program with Chip Casto on a sabbatical for the 2022-23 school year. “They are a tough Bergen County team — they are playing Don Bosco and Ridgewood and have competitive games against those teams. That team has an excellent goalie and an excellent defenseman. Scoring five goals on them in the first half was a big deal, but to come out and score five goals in the third quarter, we scared them. At the end of the game they were like, ‘let’s get this game over with.’”

Stanton believes that PHS can build on that second half surge going forward.

“Our guys are taking into the offseason that we won the second half of that game 7-3, that we can play defense, that we can score on a tough, athletic team,” said Stanton, who guided the Tigers to the Mercer County Tournament semis. “We can have those aspirations next year of winning the county tournament and competing for a state championship.”

The Tigers competed hard this spring, posting some impressive wins as it found itself in a number of nail-biters.

“We feel complete, we are proud that we beat some of the teams that we beat,” said Stanton, noting that PHS had eight one-goal games this year, going 4-4 in those tight contests. “We are proud to beat PDS (10-9 on April 29), they are a great team. Beating them in a tough, competitive rivalry game was something our boys consider a great accomplishment. We beat Notre Dame (13-12 on April 11). The kids will be able to say we beat Notre Dame and PDS. We never felt out of a game. We always felt that we could claw our way back in a game, and conversely, we always felt that we had to play all 48 minutes.”

The team’s seniors, defender Leo George (3 goals in 2023), midfielder Pierson Swanke (8 goals, 1 assist), and midfielder Archer Ayers (11 goals, 8 assists), set a positive tone.

“Leo, Pierson, and Archer were there all four years,” said Stanton. “They set the bar for how hard you are supposed to work, they set the bar for unselfishness. Particularly Pierson and Archer offensively, they were not always the headline-grabbing players but they made it possible for our team to do what we did. Leo was an All-CVC level player on defense. They can be proud of their season and their team.”

Junior attackman Patrick Kenah grabbed a lot of headlines this spring, tallying 111 points on 68 goals and 43 assists.

“The thing about Patrick is that he makes lacrosse look easy,” said Stanton. “I watch him do those things every day in practice and you just expect that he is going to score four or five goals and two or three assists. That is an average game for him. So much of his game is perception and decision-making, playing within himself. You rarely see him take a bad shot, you rarely see him force things. He is just a very composed player and is a great decision-maker.”

Sophomore midfielder Brendan Beatty, who scored 92 points on 41 goals and 51 assists, did some great things this spring.

“Brendan is one of the hardest workers I have ever been around,” asserted Stanton. “We had some kids that really grind, but any time we had a conditioning race or we wanted to really push kids in practice, he would always be first. I would be scratching my head, ‘you are one of the best players, you can get away with slacking off,’ and he never did. It was deeply, internally motivated because he loves to do that, he loves to compete. He is going to give every practice rep 100 percent. He is a great teammate, he is extremely supportive. I think that is the thing with all of our guys, we work together really well.”

Boasting a core of returners including sophomore attackman Braden Barlag (28 goals, 6 assists), sophomore midfielder Matt Thomson (6 goals, 2 assists), junior goalie Rory Dobson (202 saves in 2023), junior midfielder Graham Baird (3 goals, 3 assists), freshman attackman Alex Famiglietti (16 goals, 4 assists), junior midfielder Jason Singer (27 goals, 13 assists), junior defender James Reynolds, and sophomore defender Jack Crotty in addition to Kenah and Beatty, PHS figures to be a force going forward.

“We are going to score goals in a lot of different ways,” said Stanton. “Our defense is going to be returning a lot and they learned a lot this year. They are going into the offseason prepared to work hard and to make the improvements that we need in order to achieve those goals next year.”

Stanton believes the Tigers have what it takes to turn the one-goal games it had this spring into big wins next year.

“I think the real objective is to not be in so many one-goal games, but to put a little bit more distance between us and similar competition,” said Stanton.

For Stanton, who had served as an assistant coach for the program since 2016 after guiding the Tigers from 1996 to 2015, leading the squad this spring went smoothly due to the way the players competed.

“It was a blast, it was so much fun,” said Stanton. “There wasn’t one time where I was like I wish these guys worked harder. There was never a moment where our kids didn’t do everything that we asked of them and more. When you are coaching a bunch of boys that really want to work hard and work together, it is an easy job.”