Spring Preview: Patriot Boys Lacrosse Following Historic Season

The Freehold Township High School boys lacrosse team will be relying on a veteran defense and youth elsewhere as it tries to duplicate last year’s historic success.

The Patriots graduated their three top scorers from the 2009-2010 team that went 14-3, their most wins in school history, won their second straight Shore Conference A North division crown, and reached the Shore Conference tournament semifinals for the first time. Along the way, they defeated Christian Brothers Academy for the first time. Only a first-round loss to East Brunswick in the state tournament soured their spectacular year.

“We lost our three attackmen, who accounted for about 135 goals,” said Steve Gibb, the Patriots head coach since he started the program in 2000. “Those will be tough shoes to fill. We have good young kids coming up. We have sophomores in key positions. And we lost some in the defensive end.”

But the Patriots do have some strong pieces on defense around which to build. Senior Mike Luongo returns in goal.

“He’s been terrific so far this preseason,” Gibb said. “And Ryan Horsch, our close defender, he’s been outstanding so far in the preseason.”

Ryan Kiernan, Gene Blanco and Kyle Applegate are seniors who all return groomed to hold the midfield together. The offense, though, suffered a major blow with senior Scott Buchanan fracturing his scapula and expected now to miss six to eight weeks.

“Scotty was an offensive catalyst,” Gibb said. “That hurts.”

It puts even more pressure squarely on the defense, but Gibb believes that they will be able to handle it.

“We’re going to be expecting our defense to hold the line for the most part,” he said. “Those senior guys, with our goalie and those guys, we’re going to ask them to do a lot of things with having a lower goal total. We were scoring 15, 16, 17 goals last year. The totals are going to be much lower.”

The offense will be built around some young talent that has shown potential. They will have to step up this season.

“Some of them saw a lot of game time,” Gibb said. “Some were role players. We do have some experience. We have a lot of sophomores in key positions. We’re also starting a freshman, Stephen O’Brien. He plays attack.”

Gibb has been pleased by the preseason play of this year’s group, which has included some good surprises.

“Kevin Mara, a sophomore longstick defender, he’s stepped out of nowhere,” Gibb said. “We weren’t expecting him to be have as much of an impact as he’s had. Dan Bloodgood, who started as a freshman, has matured immensely lacrosse wise. He’ll play attack. Shane McGhee is another guy, he’s an unbelievable athletic talent. He’s a heck of a football player too. He’s in the midfield.”

The midfield can use some help as the Patriots look to make it the deepest part of the team. Its development could hold the key to helping Freehold Township duplicate some of its success of a year ago.

“Idealistically, I’d like to have three solid lines of middies,” Gibb said. “We’re kind of iffy on the third line. We still haven’t found that chemistry, that combination that works together in the third midfield. We have two good lines, and we’ll play the heck out of them.

“The third line has always been the key for us. We’re still working on the chemistry. If we can get a couple kids to step up--we’re not far from being there--we’ll be able to go all game at full tilt. We won’t have to worry about resting anyone.”

Within the Shore Conference, resting isn’t much of an option. CBA will be well aware of the Patriots’ potential. Colts Neck returns plenty from a young team of a year ago. Howell looks strong, and Marlboro is on the rise under one of Gibb’s former Freehold players, Kyle O’Donnell. RBC, which went on to win the Shore Conference tournament, is also formidable.

“Every team in our division,” Gibb said, “is going to be way more competitive than they were last year.”

The Patriots are hoping that they still have the pieces to keep them near the top of A North. Topping last year’s success could be quite a challenge, but if the veterans can hold down the fort and the new contributors mature quickly, it could be another special season.

“It’s a mixed bag of grades and experience levels,” Gibb said. “So far, everything has come together like we’d hoped it would. We feel we’ll be competitive in our division.”