NORTH CALDWELL- The Original Pancake House owner Dimitri Rentzis may be a West Essex graduate but he was still smiling broadly as he handed the championship hardware over to the Caldwell Chiefs who once again won the 7th annual Pancake Trophy Game which is the regular season lacrosse match against neighboring rival West Essex.
The Chiefs (2-4) put together their best game so far this season as senior co-captains Jordan Gruzas (5 goals, 3 assists) and Jacob Natt (12 saves) were among the key performers in a decisive 13-3 win over the Knights (0-5) before an enthusiastic crowd on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Travis Field.
Caldwell has now won the last four trophies and lead the Pancake Cup series 5-2.
“We love sponsoring this tremendous local game,” said Rentzis, whose popular Original Pancake House in West Caldwell is a frequent destination for local sports enthusiasts, including area student-athletes. “Congratulations to the Chiefs, but - most of all - it’s great to see how both lacrosse programs have come such a long way through the years.”
It hasn’t been an easy start to the season for either Caldwell or West Essex who have both faced tough schedules with the Chiefs losing to strong teams such as Seton Hall Prep and Scotch Plains, while the Knights’ defeats include a setback to a highly-ranked Summit.
It’s a Chiefs team that knew it would have some inevitable growing pains in the beginning of the season, but while always realizing that the potential is certainly there to make a legitimate run to a fourth straight Essex County Tournament final.
Caldwell has finished as the runner-up to Seton Hall Prep in the last three ECT championship games; however, the Pirates, who had won 12 straight county tourney titles entering this season, elected not to enter the ECT this spring.
Although it’s been a tough start, the optimism is rightly there for the Chiefs and especially after the dominating fashion in which they played on Saturday vs. an archrival.
“This was by far our most complete performance of the year so far,” said second-year head coach Nick Esposito. “We hadn’t been able to put it together like this before today. Our (9-4) win over Pope John was a good effort, but this was the best we’ve played.
“We came into this season with an inexperienced midfield and although we return our entire attack and two of the three starting poles (close defensemen) and our goalie, there were a lot of young guys who have had to grow up, plus we’ve been playing some really good competition.
“Hopefully we can use this game as a jumping off point to get some more wins!”
The Stevens Tech-bound Gruzas, who is now just two points shy of 100 for his career, helped the Chiefs extend their early lead firing home a shot from 12 yards out for a 5-1 lead with 6:30 remaining in the second quarter after the Chiefs had jumped on top 3-0 after the first 12 minutes.
Moravian University commit Riley Daniolwicz (2 goals, 1 assist), who is another key senior attackman, then made it 6-1 when he struck from in close with 3:00 left in the first half, as Caldwell’s sophomore Anthony Grosso was winning his fair share of faceoffs (Chiefs won 12-of-19 on the day) to help enhance a domination in possessions.
The closest West Essex ever got was 8-3 on a goal by Luca Tartara (2 goals) with 3:10 left in the third quarter before the Chiefs went on a 5-0 tear to close out the final 15 minutes, including a nifty goal by promising freshman midfielder Sean Galper (3 goals) and a pinpoint pass from Daniolowicz to the ever-present Gruzas for another goal by Caldwell’s high scorer.
