St. Augustine (7-5) rallied from a four-goal halftime deficit and forced overtime after holding Bridgewater-Raritan (8-4) to just one second-half goal, but Panthers sophomore Jack Cifuentes (two goals) kicked off the postgame festivities after delivering the game-winning goal with 2:17 left in overtime to seal a thrilling 9-8 victory for his team May 9, at Turf 2 on the campus of Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
Most importantly, it was then a happy postgame celebration for the following 17 graduating Class of 2024 seniors: team statisticians Guiliana Cocuzza and Angela Salvador in addition to players Michael Crovelli, Vinny D’Aloisio, Joe Locrotondo, Aiden West, Daine Kostes, Alex Rahimi, Nana Aidoo, Dane Sorensen, Nick Markovitch, Johnny Cooper, Ronan Scott, Bryce Lewandowski, Andrew Kavanagh, Jason Goldfeder, and Cameron Kurdyla.
“They’ve been great all year,” praised Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Chuck Apel of his team’s Class of 2024 seniors immediately after the ceremony. “They’ve come through the program, but we’re blessed to have a lot of great kids. Everybody buys in, they work really hard in practice, and we’ve gotten better and better. That’s what were always looking for.”
The Panthers’ young offense has especially improved at the most critical point of the 2024 season, particularly with the Somerset County and NJSIAA boys lacrosse tournaments now up next. After averaging 6.6 goals scored in its first nine games, Bridgewater-Raritan has erupted for 28 total goals in its last three games (9.3 goals scored per game) against elite competition: a 9-5 victory at No. 16 Ridge High School, a 10-7 victory over Gill St. Bernard’s School, and now Thursday night’s 9-8 overtime win over St. Augustine.
This, on top of a defense that is one of the best amongst all of New Jersey’s Group 4 public high schools (5.2 goals allowed per game), bodes well for a Panthers squad looking to reclaim the state’s Group 4 crown.
On Senior Night, the Panthers were also without the service of their No. 8: senior faceoff man Daine Kostes (71% faceoffs won through 12 games). While St. Augustine sophomore Domenico Addiego won 78% of his faceoffs at the center X on top of this: 14 out of the game’s 20 total face offs overall, Bridgewater-Raritan’s big first half provided it the necessary cushion to help it survive the Hermits’ rally in crunch time.
And of course, to get a win on Senior Night.
Sophomore Declan Kurdyla (four goals) exploded for a career-high four goals: all in the first half. His older brother: Cameron, made eight of his career-high 16 saves in the second quarter alone on his Senior Night to propel the Panthers to a 7-3 halftime advantage. St. Augustine then scored the third quarter’s first two goals to cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead in half with 3:49 left in the period, but junior Andrew Childs (one goal, one assist, two ground balls) found classmate Brody Nussman (two goals, three assists, two ground balls) to extend the Panthers’ lead to 8-5 with 1:42 left in the third quarter.
Junior goalie Ben Zaitz (nine saves) and the Hermits’ defense then held the Panthers scoreless over the final 13:42 in regulation while getting all three goals back on offense, including the game-tying goal by sophomore Mason Raucci (three goals) on a pass from freshman Brayson Thurber (one goal, one assist) with 5:49 left in the fourth quarter.
Bridgewater-Raritan continued to fire good looks in the next three minutes with the game tied, 8-8, and St. Augustine found itself with a player down late. While the Hermits’ defense held on, the Panthers’ defense forced a turnover in the closing seconds of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Senior Aiden West scooped up the biggest of his two ground balls on the opening faceoff of the extra period, but with 3:09 to go in the first four-minute, sudden-death period, one player from each team was assessed a penalty and had to come off of the field. The Panthers retained possession before Nussman found Cifuentes on what appeared to be a broken pass, but Cifuentes was able to swing and connect on the walk-off goal with 2:17 left to seal his team’s 9-8 victory and storm his sideline onto the field.
“I caught it at X and saw I could get a step on my guy,” revealed Nussman of what led to his game-winning assist. “I just went up, drew Jack’s guy, and Jack was in a good spot. I threw a pretty bad pass, but he handled it pretty well and took a great shot.”
Added Cifuentes: “Brody made that play in the beginning. He took a step, got me a good pass, handled it well, and I was able to get it off. We knew our offense had to step up, and all game too, our defense stepped up on their end. Cameron stepped up big in the cage. It all comes down to that.”
Vinny D’Aloisio added one assist on his Senior Night, which also saw classmates Michael Crovelli (six faceoffs won), Dane Sorensen (one faceoff won), and Bryce Lewandowski combine for 14 ground balls. Sophomore Mikey Bratus and junior Nick DiEsso scooped up two ground balls each to round out the scoring for Bridgewater-Raritan, which won for the fifth time in its last six games to close out the regular season.
“The kids played great and our defense played really well, especially Dane and Bryce,” Apel went on to say. “Declan had four goals. [On the overtime winner,] Jack kind of bobbled it when he first got in there, and then he hit it right on the back pipe. It was a great pass from Brody and a great shot.”
Sophomore Sebastian Varallo (three goals), senior Austin Exley (one goal, one assist), and sophomore Ryan Wodazak (one assist) rounded out the scoring for St. Augustine in defeat.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan (8-4) is the Somerset County Boys Lacrosse Tournament. The Panthers are seeded No. 3 in the bracket only behind No. 2 Bernards High School (12-1) and two-time reigning champion and No. 1 Pingry School (12-1), who are ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in all of New Jersey, respectively.
The Panthers fell, 10-3, against Pingry in their season opener (April 4) in addition to, notably, 10-7 and 14-6 losses against the Big Blue in the county championship games in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The Panthers were also defeated by Bernards, 9-5, back on April 18, but Bridgewater-Raritan won against all of its remaining Somerset County opponents it faced during the 2024 regular season.
Following first-round bye and well-deserved rest for Bridgewater-Raritan, which has improved greatly over this past month, the Panthers will launch their bid for their first county title since winning four straight from 2015-18 against No. 6 Somerville High School in the quarterfinal round May 14, at 4 p.m. in Bridgewater.
The winner of this game will advance to the semifinal round on Thursday, May 16, against the winner of the quarterfinals matchup between No. 2 Bernards and No. 10 Immaculata High School.
The 2024 county title game is notably scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday, May 18: the cutoff date for games played towards state tournament seeding.
Bridgewater-Raritan currently sits at the No. 3 overall spot in the Group 4 rankings on LaxNumbers, which will be used to seed the state tournament. While the Panthers are comfortably inside of the top four in its NJSIAA North New Jersey Group 4 bracket, they are just under one point ahead of No. 4 seeded Montclair High School, meaning a lot is at stake during cutoff week for Bridgewater-Raritan and high school lacrosse teams throughout the Garden State.
The Panthers will then begin their quest for their first Group 4 state championship since 2022 when the state tournament begins May 22.
No. 2 ranked Ridgewood High School, which eliminated Bridgewater-Raritan in the sectional semifinals last year, is the reigning Group 4 and Kirst Cup state champion.
“We move forward starting with counties on Tuesday,” concluded coach Apel. “Here we go.”
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