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MKA's Jack Barrack (4) and Lincoln Hedberg (48) eye a Millburn player who has fallen to the turf with ball while Cougars' goalie Nathan Kissel prepares himself for a play in this past Tuesday's 11-7 MKA win at Van Brunt Field in Montclair. Barrack (4) races up the field with a Millburn player beside him and the Millers' Oliver Becker (1) fires shot on goal as goalie Kissel and defendseman Ben Safirstein (35) look to stop the Millers attackman. In bottom photo Millburn's Ander Berman (16) brings ball upfield as MKA's defenseman Thomas Toomey (10) looks to provide resistence. Both young teams are looking to impact in title chase. (Photos by Gene Nann-see genenann.smugmug.com) continued from page 1) Millburn’s reigning ground balls leader Dylan Wolk, a key senior close defenseman, was sidelined due to sickness at MKA, while the Cougars were playing without their usual starting goalie, sophomore Simon Hardiman, who was out with an ankle sprain, and his first backup, junior Ethan Bell, was out sick on Tuesday. Up stepped another sophomore, Nathan Kissel, who is one of four goalies on the MKA roster, and he came through big-time, making 15 saves vs. Millburn, recovering nicely after a tough first quarter. “I’m proud of Nathan, who really stepped up for us,” said Giarrusso. “He had a tough time in the beginning not seeing the ball that well and I spoke to my defense about doing a better job in front of him while stressing to them to be more aggressive and to get more ground balls between the restraining area. “Then, as we’re down, 7-4, our 2-way midfielder (junior) Miles Black, received a 2:00 penalty and I’m thinking that we could be in trouble, but Nathan comes up with four great saves, which was a turning point for us, and then we were on our way. Sophomore attackman Charlie Wolff scored to make it 7-5 with 9:11 left in the third quarter and Haverford College-bound senior attackman Nicholas Snyder then trimmed to Millers lead to 7-6 with 2:15 remaining in the third before freshman defenseman Kiran Hailey came up the field to fire home a tying goal with 42.5 seconds left in the quarter. Snyder wound up leading the Cougars with 4 goals and 2 assists, while junior attackman Henry McCann, who serves as co-captain with Snyder, had 2 goals and 3 assists with his own big-time offensive effort. Wolff (2 goals) and two other sophomores, attackman Noah Rodgers (2 assists) and midfielder Thomas Meeker (1 goal, 1 assist) also helped boost the MKA surge toward a key Bianchi Division victory. Millburn had jumped off to an impressive 4-0 lead in the match with goals from Fishkin, as his injury occurred on the nice shot; senior midfielder Jesse Schwartz, senior defenseman Quentin Kuehn and freshman attackman Quinn Barkley. MKA began its comeback sparked by McCann’s first goal, which trimmed the Millers’ lead in half at 4-2 with 10:23 left in the half. Wolf made it 4-3 just 18 seconds later and Snyder’s first goal tied matters, 4-4, with 4:22 left before the intermission. Millburn took a 5-4 halftime lead on freshman Chace Redler’s goal with 2:16 to go in the second. The Millers tried to hang in behind their solid senior goalie Bobby Hansen; however, the Cougars simply created some really excellent opportunities for themselves and they were on their way to a strong finish. MKA may be a young squad, but the talent is also definitely there, including several players who reside in good lacrosse communities, such as freshmen defenders Hailey (Upper Montclair) and Thomas Toomey (Ridgewood) who have the stick skills and high lacrosse IQ from their superb youth lacrosse days. Juniors Ryan Decter and Lincoln Hedberg and sophomore Ben Safirstein are other talented young defensemen for the Cougars. The midfield is led by Black, the school’s football QB, along with other junior starters in Jack Barrack and Jack Scourzo and the sophomore Meeker, who is a superb hockey player in the winter season. Sophomore Finn MacEvoy, another football player, has emerged as a top faceoff man, while freshman Zach Kucharz is a short stick defensive middie on the rise. Snyder, McCann and Wolff all help to lead a promising attack. “At our level one of the benefits of limited numbers is that players get a lot of reps together,” said Giarrusso. “That helps develop continuity and our kids enjoy playing together out there which is great to see!” MKA is off for a few days as the school has a junior class trip with the next game being another big Bianchi Division contest, 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 24, at St. Peter’s Prep, while Millburn also has a big division contest that afternoon as it makes the short trip over to Livingston for the 20th annual ‘Jake’s Cup’ game which is played in the honor of former longtime Livingston lacrosse and football coach Al ‘Jake’ Jacobson. The Millers picked up an independent victory on Saturday (April 20) roaring past Kittatinny, 7-2. NOTES- Wolk, Redler and sophomore defensive midfielder Chase Plotkin were all key members of Millburn’s outstanding basketball team which had a great state tournament run this past winter season while advancing to the North 2, Group 3 state sectional final a Colonia…Roth is a 1997 graduate of Montclair High School where he also starred for the Mounties’ state championship lacrosse team that spring, used to also be the QB throwing passes to David Tyree with the Mounties before the talented wide receiver went to Syracuse and then emerged as a Super Bowl star for the NFL Giants…Roth played his collegiate lacrosse at Nazareth (N.Y.) and also served in the U.S. Marines for four years, including a pair of tours in Iraq plus six more years in the Marine reserves…He is a fireman in Millburn, while his co-coach Mike Gilligan is a fulltime fireman and with EMS for the South Essex firehouse which serves both Maplewood and South Orange…Giarrusso, in his third season as MKA’s head coach after being a co-head coach with Paul Edwards for two years, comes from a busy lacrosse family with wife Suzanne, a former scholastic star at Montclair, currently serving as a middle school coach at MKA after having previously been a head coach at Verona. Their oldest son Will, who starred at Seton Hall Prep, currently plays at Stevens Tech, while middle son Colin, who is Scranton University-bound, is a defensive midfielder for SHP this spring. Youngest son Trevor, is a freshman defenseman at Verona which lost to dad’s MKA team, 9-5, back on April 6. Bianchi Division: Livingston (5-2, 4-0), St. Peter’s Prep (5-2, 3-1), MKA (4-2, 2-1), Columbia (2-5, 2-2), Millburn (5-2, 2-2), Madison (3-2, 2-2), Cranford (1-5, 0-4) and Delaware Valley (1-5, 0-3) Follow Steve Tober on 'X' (formerly Twitter) @Chattermeister
MKA and Millburn players battle for possession and Cougars' Henry McCann (3) makes his move toward the goal. The Millers' Jake Fishin (6) fires home his team's first goal as he also injures his ankle on play and MKA's Kiran Hailey (11) manages to move in close before firing a shot on goal as Millers' Bobby Hansen prepares to try and make the save. Ccopyright 2005 Sideline Chatter - comments - contact the webmaster
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