Boys Lacrosse: Pingry rallies in second half for first SCT title in 16 years
BRIDGEWATER — Friday night, Pingry held an induction ceremony for its newest athletic Hall of Fame class, which included the 2006 boys lacrosse team – the last one to win a Somerset County Tournament title in the program.
Saturday morning, 25 former Pingry players had an alumni game with a buzz leading to Saturday’s SCT final
“They were like coach you got to win today,” Big Blue coach Mike Webster said, “and then we came down, we did. So pretty exciting. Big weekend for Pingry lacrosse.”
This newest generation of Pingry lacrosse players etched their name into the school’s lore by defeating Bridgewater-Raritan 10-7 in Saturday’s final at Torpey Athletic Complex for the team’s first SCT title in 16 years.
Down 6-2 at halftime, Pingry went on a 6-0 run to take the lead.
Top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (12-3) had defeated second-seeded Pingry (11-3) in the second game of the season 8-7 in overtime on April 2.
Saturday, Ryan Palmer scored four goals for Pingry with Luke Engelke (assist) and Oliver Duryee each adding two and Asher Ziv (assist) and Charlie Sherman (assist) having a goal apiece.
For Bridgewater-Raritan, Rob Strano and Brady Kurdyla (2 assists) each scored twice and Kyle Holmes, Colin Kurdyla (2 assists) and Matt Maciolek each added a goal.
Webster said the team made some slight adjustments, but the keys in the second half were Engelke winning faceoffs and the offense having good possessions by moving the ball around and giving the shooters a good opportunity to step in for the shot.
“The first half we were rushing,” Webster said. “They really made a couple saves in the first half, but I thought in the second half we got faceoffs and really good possessions which ended with really good shots. And we have good shooters who can score.”
Now, this 2022 team just might get to meet up one day down the line at a hall of fame ceremony.
“We’ve talked about that, too, how are you going to leave Pingry lacrosse?,” Webster said. “And this team is now going to leave as the county champ.”
What it means
This Pingry’s fourth SCT title with previous wins in 2003, 2004 and 2006. The Big Blue were runners-up in 2002, 2005, 2015 and 2016. (The tournament started in 2002 and was not contested the last two years because of the pandemic.)
Key play
Just as the skies opened up in the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Big Blue poured it on with two goals from Oliver Duryee just 8 second apart after Engelke won a pair of faceoffs. That gave Pingry an 8-6 lead and they held down the stretch.
Game ball
Pingry's zone defense played strong in front of sophomore goalie Graham Stevens, who made nine goals including a handful at point-blank range.
What's next
Each team awaits next week's NJSIAA playoff brackets.
They said it
Pingry's Ryan Palmer on the 6-0 run, "We just tried to kind of capitalize on matchups. We said if one of us can beat our guy, then the rest of us can get the defense sliding. The openings will be there and we'll get the job done. We'll finish our shots."
Pingry's Luke Engelke, “We all were talking about it all week, all month just how we haven’t had one since 2006 and that last team is in our Hall of Fame. They’re a very important team and that we need to make history just as well. We got a great group of kids. Great sophomores, juniors, freshmen, seniors, and we put it together today. We overcame adversity and I’m really proud of everybody.”
Email: amendlowitz@njpressmedia.com
Andy Mendlowitz is a sports reporter for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to local news throughout Central Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Boys Lacrosse: Pingry rallies in second half for SCT title
