Boys Lacrosse: Tufte, defense lead Manalapan to comeback win over Monroe in NJSIAA South Group 4 opener

MANALAPAN — Monroe made it clear that it was not going to let Manalapan senior Matt Avivi beat them. With the Falcons taking away the Braves’ all-time leading goal scorer, they needed to turn elsewhere for offense.

Anthony Tufte was up to the challenge.

The senior attackman scored three straight goals from late in the second quarter to midway through the third quarter and added a pair of fourth-quarter assists on Thursday when 8th-seeded Manalapan rallied for an 8-6 win over 9th-seeded Monroe in the first round of the NJSIAA South Group 4 state tournament.

Tufte’s five-point evening coupled with a lockdown performance from Manalapan’s defense and junior goalie Connor Doel delivered the Braves a state playoff win for the third straight year.

“You want seniors to play like seniors, and Anthony Tufte had a day,” Manalapan head coach Nick Filippone said. “He played aggressive and confident. When his number was called he was the guy to get that really important goal for us.”

“I think the seniors just didn’t want it to be our last game,” Tufte said.

Manalapan was lights-out over the final three quarters after an unsettled first quarter where it committed three penalties and struggled mightily to gain possession. Monroe junior midfielder Joe Santangelo dominated the face-off X in going 17-for-18, including a perfect 10-for-10 in the first half. Manalapan trailed 3-1 after the first quarter and fell behind 4-1 early in the fourth quarter. Then, the Braves snapped out of it.

The Manalapan defense — notably senior defenseman Dennis Gabinelli, sophomore defenseman Nick Palmieri, and senior short-stick defensive midfielder Scott Hill — took away Monroe’s time and space and forced turnovers to ignite a five-goal surge that erased the deficit and put the Braves ahead for good. Gabinelli and Palmieri had multiple caused turnovers each while Hill provided excellent man-to-man defense and was superb on clears. The 6-man unit in front of Doel continued to put together quality defensive sequences to neutralize Monroe’s possession advantage.

“Our defense has fought all year long so, being down by three, we knew we could fight back if we fixed the small things,” Gabinelli said. “The biggest part of that was our sideline. They were loud all game and our defense feeds off that. Then the offense fed off that and we started to click.”

“Their face-off guy was exceptionally good,” Filippone said. “We threw everything at him to try to neutralize him and he found a way to win (almost) every single one. I give that kid and their whole team a lot of credit. They play aggressive and gritty and they’re well-coached. Our defense stood on their head in a lot of different ways. Those guys have played extremely diligent and disciplined defense all spring. Today, they locked in and figured out some matchups and tendencies.”

Doel finished with 14 saves while junior attackman Nick Tufte scored twice. Sophomore attackman Eli Greenberg delivered a goal and two assists while Avivi and senior Jake Schatz finished with a goal and an assist each.

Manalapan will face top-seeded Kingsway in the quarterfinals at 4 p.m. on Monday. The Dragons (19-0) are New Jersey’s lone undefeated team.

To earn a rematch with Kingsway, Manalapan (11-10) had to get its offense out of neutral trailing by three goals 40 seconds into the second quarter. Monroe opened up a 2-0 lead on an extra-man goal by Evan Burkshot 49 seconds in and a strike by Anthony Santangelo off a feed from Joe Santangelo less than a minute later. Manalapan got on the board when Greenberg scored at 4:59, but the Falcons answered when Jake Aikens scored off a setup from Joe Santangelo 65 seconds later.

With Joe Santangelo giving Monroe possession after possession, the Falcons had a chance to break the game open. Doel and Manalapan’s defense made sure that didn’t happen, and the Braves’ offense finally pulled itself out of the mud. Schatz scored off an assist from Avivi at 8:48 to make it 4-2. Manalapan then cashed in on its first extra-man opportunity of the game when Nick Tufte buried a helper from Greenberg at 4:01. With 2:08 left in the first half, Anthony Tufte found his way inside and sank the game-tying goal to send Manalapan and Monroe into the half knotted 4-4.

“We made some adjustments with matchups and played a little cleaner, stopped taking penalties,” Filippone said. “I’m super confident in our 6-on-6 defense. When we were man-down is when they were getting good opportunities.”

Manalapan’s momentum carried into the second half where Tufte scored his second in a row for a 5-4 Braves lead. After receiving a pass at X, Tufte curled topside unobstructed and bounced a shot just past the outstretched crosse of Falcons’ goalie Peyton Million. A little over 90 seconds later, Tufte initiated a dodge from seven yards out, beat a Monroe SSDM to the inside, and scored with a high lefty bouncer for a 6-4 Manalapan lead.

“There’s no better feeling than coming out here and performing, especially in front of the home crowd,” Tufte said.

As well as Manalapan was playing, it still had to protect a slim lead entering the fourth quarter. Monroe trimmed its deficit to one when Will Rembish scored at 10:22, and some tense possessions followed until Manalapan went back up by two with four minutes left. Avivi found shooting space and received a pass from Anthony Tufte, but a Monroe defender checked Avivi’s stick as he released a shot. The ball stayed on its trajectory toward the goal but came out much slower than anticipated, fooling Million and crossing the goal line for his 53rd goal of the season and a 7-5 Manalapan lead.

Monroe made it a one-goal game again when senior defenseman Taran Singh intercepted a clearing pass and scored to make it 7-6 with 2:05.

Manalapan, however, was able to seal it with a play that epitomized its effort. Palmieri and senior SSDM Jason Rinaldi combined to force a turnover and Gabinelli picked up the ground ball and raced toward midfield. Multiple Monroe players converged on him and, while falling to the ground, he shoveled a pass forward that Anthony Tufte corralled just inside the restraining line. He dodged two defenders and looked inside to find a wide-open Nick Tufte, who buried his shot under the crossbar for an 8-6 lead with 1:42 left.

“I did like a somersault after I passed it and turned my head to see Tufte make a great pass,” Gabinelli said. “It was a big momentum swing to go up two goals there.”

One final caused turnover by the Braves’ defense allowed them to burn the final minute-plus and secure a gutsy victory. In just its fifth year as a varsity program, Manalapan has won a state playoff game for three consecutive seasons.

“I think our coaches are a big part of that,” Gabinelli said. “They work so hard every day, game-planning, in practice, making sure we’re working our tails off. And the guys want to compete. They want to fight. They want to win. When that all comes together, we’re a tough team.”

“It’s super rewarding,” Filippone said. “It takes an insane amount of work from top to bottom, and it starts with our youth program. We have a great coaching staff. Those guys don’t get enough credit for what they do on a daily basis, and I’m super grateful for them. We have a great athletic director, a great principal. It takes an entire family to make things work.”

Now Manalapan will try to take down the state’s last undefeated team. Kingsway is ranked in the top 10 in the state and is 19-0 after a 24-0 win over Millville in the first round. The Braves can fully embrace the underdog mentality, but they’ll also have revenge on their minds after Kingsway rallied for an 8-7 win in last season’s quarterfinal round with four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter.

“These guys have a bad taste in their mouths and they want to get it out,” Filippone said.

“They’re a good team, but so are we. We’re going to go down there and fight. We lost a rough one to them last year so we definitely have a chip on our shoulder. We want to go there and shock the state.”