West Milford Highlanders end lacrosse season with 13 wins

Sure, it’s true that the West Milford High School boy’s lacrosse program hit a rough patch at the beginning of the year.

But, if anyone thought that the Highlanders were in any way going to quit on themselves and hope for a better 2023, well than they don’t know much about head coach Gary Stoll, his coaching staff or the student athletes who comprise the Highlander roster.

“Honestly, even though the season didn’t start out the greatest for us, it was our first four games that stand out,” Stoll said. “We played Glen Rock [on March 30] game one and battled the entire time falling, 9-7, to a team that later made the [NJSIAA North Jersey Group 1] Sectional finals. Our second game came against perennial powerhouse Northern Highlands [on April 2] where we played an outstanding game losing, 11-7.

“Then came Somerville [on April 5] where we played awful but used that game to fix what needed to be fixed and set the rest of the season up for success. The next game we beat Wayne Valley, 9-8 [on April 8] and honestly played extremely well for the remainder of the season.’’

Members of the graduating class of 2022 proved to be reliable leaders for the Highlanders this past spring season.

“Fortunately for us our entire senior class acted as leaders both on and off the field,’’ Stoll said. “They do things the right way and demand the rest of our team follows.”

Stoll continued, “Outside of our main returners we had several guys step up. Ralph Turre was outstanding in goal this season. Jason Donohue transferred back and was a huge part of our defense, along with Mat Kochan and Tyler Heres, who filled a huge void at long stick midfield. Then freshman Vincent D’Andrea stepped in and helped fill the void left by Casey Fagan and his 79 goals last year.’’

The Highlanders proved to be durable with a fine overall record of 13-7 against a tough schedule, which included a 6-2 mark in the NJILL Jacobson Division.

They are very much getting ready for a strong campaign next spring.

“Although we’ll be graduating 10 seniors who all contributed, we have a lot of talented younger players who got some quality game experience this season,’’ Stoll said.

West Milford advanced to the quarterfinal round of the North Jersey Group 2 Sectional Tournament before being defeated by eventual runner up West Essex.