Boys Lacrosse: Freshmen spark No. 4 Rumson-Fair Haven’s rally past No. 1 Manasquan

RUMSON — Trailing by four at halftime to top-ranked Manasquan, Rumson-Fair Haven was in dire need of a spark. That’s when a group of freshmen rose to the challenge and helped the Bulldogs rally for their best win of the season.

Freshman face-off specialist Jaden Cavise won 11 of 14 draws to flip the momentum and freshman goalie Daniel Jaroschak backstopped a tenacious defense that delivered a second-half shutout when Rumson, ranked No. 4 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10, scored seven unanswered goals to surge past the No. 1 Warriors, 10-8, in a Shore Conference American Division game on Tuesday evening.

Down by five goals twice during the second quarter, Rumson found life with Cavise getting hot at the face-off X. The Bulldogs turned those possessions into goals as the offense scored six times over the final two quarters to hand Manasquan its first conference loss of the season. Freshman midfielder Liam Haggerty sank the game-tying goal with 1:07 remaining in the third quarter and senior midfielder Grayson Goldin delivered the go-ahead strike with 8:42 left in regulation.

Junior attackman Luke Lydon scored a game-high three goals, senior midfielder Britt Lumsden tallied two goals and three assists, and Goldin scored twice to lead the offensive charge. Freshman attackman Teddy Whitehouse had a goal and an assist and senior FOGO Rory Keane scored when he won the opening face-off and found twine just six seconds into the game.

Jaroschak entered in the second half and made six saves behind a defense led by seniors Frank Argilagos and Toby Najenson that held Manasquan scoreless over the final two quarters. The win snapped a three-game losing streak and got the Bulldogs (9-8) back over .500 against an unforgiving schedule.

“He kind of did it for us,” Goldin said of Cavise’s game-changing effort at the face-off X. “He put the team on his shoulders and for a freshman, that’s more than you can ever ask for. He kept getting us possessions and he put his stamp on the game.”

“He’s a great, humble kid,” Argilagos said. “He wasn’t a starter and this is his first time playing most of the game. He works his butt off the whole time. I’m really proud of him. He got his chance and he made the most of it.”

Manasquan (11-2) had opened an 8-3 with 1:50 left in the second quarter when senior midfielder Matt Schneider scored his second of the game off an assist from junior midfielder Jack O’Reilly. Senior goalie Pat Loxley made several outstanding saves in the first half while O’Reilly had two goals and two assists and senior attackman Brandon Kunz scored twice. Rumson was able to forge a sliver of momentum when Lumsden scored unassisted with 56 seconds left in the first half to make it 8-4 at the intermission. His goal turned out to be the start of a rousing comeback.

Teddy Whitehouse scored at 4:44 of the third to make it 8-5 and then Cavise went to work as the Bulldogs’ success began to snowball. Lydon scored off a pass from junior midfielder Joseph Whitehouse for an extra-man goal that pulled Rumson to within 8-6 with 2:53 on the clock and Lumsden scored unassisted at 2:11 to make it 8-7. Cavise won another face-off and, on the ensuing possession, Haggerty’s shot was initially stopped by Loxley but bounced back across the goal line to tie the score 8-8.

Goldin’s game-winning goal off a pass from Teddy Whitehouse was a low-to-high blast that found room over Loxley’s left shoulder just inside the right post with 8:42 on the clock. With 4:30 remaining, Goldin gave Rumson an insurance goal when he cut in front from X and scored on the run.

“Over these past couple games our defense has really stepped it up and the offense owed it to them to put some balls in the back of the net,” Goldin said. “It was a team effort.”

The game couldn’t have started any better for Rumson when Keane won the opening face-off and raced in for a goal six seconds into the contest. Manasquan answered on a goal by Kunz off a setup from Kieran Schneider just 10 seconds later, and from there the Warriors built a 4-2 lead after the first quarter on goals by Kunz, O’Reilly, senior attackman Ryan Aldi and junior midfielder Lucas Longo.

Manasquan’s lead grew to 7-2 midway through the second quarter when Kunz scored off another assist by Kieran Schneider, O’Reilly found the back of the net on a righty rocket, and Matt Schneider scored off a setup from Aldi. Rumson broke the five-goal run when Lydon converted a feed from Lumsden at 4:41, but Manasquan answered on Schneider’s second goal to go up 8-3.

“We put ourselves in a hole and the things we’ve been doing are the reason why we were .500,” Rumson-Fair Haven head coach Marc Moreau said. “But they regathered themselves at halftime, we made an adjustment, and they went out there and did it one ground ball, one face-off, one defensive stop, one offensive possession at a time. The difference today was that they were executing in those situations. We didn’t have two good scenarios and then we make a mistake and give one up. It went from good to better and it snowballed.”

Among the changes made were Cavise getting a shot on face-offs and Jaroschak entering for usual starting goalie Peter Kessler.

“We had a little competition at the end of practice (Monday) night and he did pretty well, so we have all the confidence in the world in him,” Moreau said of Cavise. “We also have all the confidence in the world in Rory. You can’t start any better than he did. But I think the other guy figured him out a little bit. Rory is kind of a bull in a china shop and if he can muscle you around, that’s what he’s good at. Jaden is much more technical and he understood what the other guy was doing and was able to counter. He did a great job for us.”

“When my name gets called I’m going to leave it all on the field,” Cavise said. “Once I got out there and I got used to it, I did what I do. I was ready to go.”

Jaroschak didn’t have to be a brick wall in the second half thanks to Rumson limiting Manasquan’s possessions, but he came up with three notable saves, first on a bouncer by Matt Schneider and then two stops on the same possession to keep it a 10-8 game in the final three minutes.

“We don’t typically pull the goalie,” Moreau said. “Kessler just wasn’t seeing it and it wasn’t his night. We play a lot of freshmen and sophomores and they’re starting to figure it out. It’s not easy for a freshman to come in when we’re down four, five goals and I thought he handled himself really well.”

Rumson’s victory turned an already chaotic Shore Conference lacrosse scene on its head. The top four teams in the Shore —  Rumson, Manasquan, CBA, and Shore Regional — have taken turns beating each other in a season where parity has reigned supreme. The Bulldogs were able to parlay their Shore Conference Tournament cutoff-day win into the No. 1 seed. The SCT begins on Saturday, and it figures to be the most wide-open tournament since its inception in 2005.

It’s been an up-and-down season for Rumson, but the nine-time SCT champs reminded everyone just how dangerous they can be. Now the challenge is to build off it.

“We’ve had a couple of these games this year and we’ve yet to see it manifest itself, so maybe now it does,” Moreau said. “We’ll find out next week. When you’re playing a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, you’re not sure, but this should certainly give them a lot of confidence moving forward. We needed one like this and they got it, so hopefully it points them in the right direction and we don’t look back.”

“We have a young team so sometimes if we get down early they can think it’s over and kind of give up,” Goldin said. “But a game like this, where we continue to fight,t is what we need going into the playoffs.”