NJ 2019

[bulax]

Delbarton takes down undefeated #3 Chaminade 12-9. Delbarton mucked up the face offs, winning almost 50% in the first half against Chaminade. Dominant defensive effort in the first half by Delbarton and they were able to fend off the come back. The disrespect for NJ lax on the national scene is very real. The non public A will be a very interesting race, hopefully we can see a shp delbarton final.

[Njlaxx11]

Tourney brackets released today!
Number 1 seeds
A: SHP
B: Pingry
1N: Lakes
1S: Squan
2N: Summit
2S: Rumson
3N: Chatham
3S: Moorestown
4N: Ridge
4S: Montgomery

Predictions?

[bulax]

1N: Lakes with ease, caldwell is good but lakes is another level.
1S: Dont see Manaquan being challenged.
2N: This is summits to lose. As WMC proved against lakes they can be very dangerous. I think summit, WMC, and Ramapo are all legit contenders. If WMC or Ramapo can play deliberate, slow, grinding offense against summit in the championship they could steal it. Both WMC and Ramapo have excellent FOGOs, an area where summit has struggled.
2S: RFH has got to win this.
3N: Chatham is an underrated team imo, theyve given Delbarton a scare twice. Northern Highlands has some good players so wouldnt be shocked to see a close title game and theyve looked better from the eye test down the stretch, but im pretty confident chatham takes it.
3S: I like Ocean city for this. Despite not playing the schedule that moorestown does, I think that they have the right pieces to take this. An excellent fogo helps. They played a very talented, and imo underrated, st. augustine team to the wire. Moorestown is so inconsistent. Great showings occasionally, but primarily disappointment coming from the sj squad. Maybe they can turn things around to make a run, but I think theyll have a tough time beating the OC team led by a strong fogo. This season Moorestown has struggled when playing teams with top tier face off work.
4N: I wish I knew more about this group. My initial impression is that ridgewood is an excellent team, fairly consistent too. Hogan is the real deal at the X, and they seem to have playmakers all over the field. Ridge to me seems inconsistent, but I havent seen much of them. When they get going tho, they really get going. Maybe ridge f/o man and middie crapanzano can win some against hogan and trap him on the field. Dont know much about HC, but they have some legit guys and scoring threats led by the sensational Aimone, I would highly recommend watching him play. He is going to turn out to be an excellent collegiate player. Westfield has too many pieces to be as inconsistent and generally disappointing as they have been this season. Maybe theyll come alive in the post season. Mclane is the most electric playmaker in the state, his game reminds me of the newly reinstated Garnsey at ND. Very dangerous because his deceptive stick position freezes defenses and allows off ball men to get open. Hope we can see more of him in big games down the stretch. My prediction is that ridge takes it on Hogan’s back.
4S: Dont know a ton, but montgomery or lenape should win it. Cherokee has several excellent players but hasnt proven they can capitalize on their star power. I like montgomery, but i think the final will be hotly contested.
B: If pingry loses this its a miracle.
A: this is likely going to be a great game between SHP and delbarton. Think its going to be very close. Delbarton needs to get past a good st. Augustine squad first though. Dont even want to pick a winner, tough to beat the same team twice in a year though...

[Njlaxx11]

Well in the public’s all seems status quo - though Mendham upset Randolph and Wayne Hills took Northern Highlands to 3OT.

Non Public’s really start to kick off this week, along with the semis of the public tournaments.

[bulax]

Though they ultimately prevailed, delbarton and st. augustine both had unexpected scares against their opponents in the quarters of non public a today. Delbarton trailed st joes 4-1 at the half, winning out 12-8. It was tied 5-5 going into the fourth for st. augustine, who then blew out cba with 5 unanswered goals. Should be a good semi final. Only common opponent I can find is the new inter-AC champ malvern prep. St. Augustine lost 16-7 and Delbarton managed a 8-7 win. Look forward to seeing how it plays out. It feels like their is a clear separation of talent between the top 3 (SHP, Delbarton, and St. Augustine) and the rest of the pack in non public A. I do not anticipate there to be much of a challenge from bosco or bergen to SHP, but the delbarton semi could be different.

[Njlaxx11]

I’ll chalk up the slow starts by delby and shp to the time off. They haven’t played games in a while and are probably shaking off the rust. Not so sure St Augustine will compete with the 2 of them.

[Njlaxx11]

Absolute shocker as Don Bosco upsets SHP in the non public A. Sets up Delbarton/Bosco.

NPA - Bosco/Delby
NPB - Rutgers Prep/Mo Beard
1 - Lakes/Squan
2 - Summit/Somerville
3 - Chatham/Moorestown
4 - Hunterdon Central/Montgomery.

See a couple upsets in there - down to the last 12!!

[bulax]

Wow. I was at both NPA games, will share my thoughts later. Gutsy win from the DBP boys. Especially considering theyre down one of the best defensive players and one of the best offensive weapons in the state. Impressive coaching job and game plan. Very hard to pull an upset when youre getting dominated at the X. I think SHP was honestly looking to delbarton, assuming that they were going to sweep the floor with bosco who by the numbers (9-8) was having a bad season. Any predictions for the groups? Ill add my thoughts later.

[Blackdoglax]

Delbarton will now handle Bosco after DB did the dirty work of eliminating SHP.

Coaches at SHP have got to be kicking themselves since they probably just cost themselves the TOC.

Same with Pingry. Should never have lost to Rutgers Prep.

[bulax]

Largely agree, especially with pingry. I would have favored delbarton by a few after seeing both teams live. The SHP O hasnt been right for a couple games, and delbarton is on a roll after beating the nations #2 team. im most interested in seeing if manasaquan can make the mountain lakes game competitive.

[Blackdoglax]

I think they will.....they have a generational player and Lakes has not been challenged lately. That said, I think Lakes wins by 3 or 4.

Flynn has seen his share of HS superstars.....

[Njlaxx11]

here are my predictions:

NPA: Delby
NPB: MoBeard
1: Lakes
2: Summit
3: Chatham
4: Montgomery

[LordRaider]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

[bulax]

First two are in. Debby takes A with a 12-7 decision over Don Bosco. Mobeard takes the crown in one of the craziest comebacks I've ever seen, 8-7, over rutgers prep who let 7-2 midway through the fourth. The Delbarton DBP got off to a fast start with Delbarton scoring 2 goals in the first 25 seconds. Bosco kept it a very competitive game for most of it. Delbarton scored two incredible buzzer beating goals to end the first and second quarters. Its a shame Bosco has so much injured/ineligible talent. Corbett looked great for his first game action of the year. Having the best LSM in the state and several other D1 commits on the bench was a major blow. I think they could have had a much different early season if their talent was healthy. Delbarton looks like a potential TOC champion quality team. The other teams I considered TOC contenders are largely eliminated. The shocking losses by Ridgewood and Ridge really changed the field. One of Manasquan/Mountain lakes are not moving on. HC, Moorestown, and Chatham all could make some noise. I don't like the way summit matches up with Delbarton, so I think even if they win against somerville they face a daunting challenge. All areas of Delbarton's game looked solid. Kirst and Long are a special duo on attack, their FO game is looking good, and the defense has noticeably improved. Mobeard pulled out an incredible comeback in a game that I thought was completely over. 7-2 with roughly 7 minutes left and having lost the face off battle by a wide margin, you could see some of their players hanging their heads. Rutgers prep started playing stall ball, much like the UVA UMD game in this year's NCAA tourney, even on an EMO and it came back to bite them. Mobeard changed their FO to a shorty from their pole, and won every face-off and scored on every shot they took. They scored the game winner with 24 seconds on the clock. I was able to catch the stream of the Manasquan Mountain lakes game. It was evident to me that this will not be a repeat of last years matchup. Canyon Birch is more athletic, and through less than 2Q has more points than he did in last years matchup. I was fairly shocked to see Manaquan compete with Palazzi at the X. I consider him to be one of the top 5 face off men in the state and comfortably a top 5 most valuable player in NJ this year. He has a bright future at Penn. Mountain Lakes has tried to shut Birch, but off almost every reset he is starting with the ball. Birch is excellent, he dodged from midfield and scored from 12 on an off handed sweep. Manasquan also looked like they could compete when they couldn't get birch involved. Looking forward to today's games, I think they should all be competitive. Any last minute predictions for this afternoon or TOC? If Manasquan wins, who do they give the #1 seed to? Manasquan would be coming in undefeated, Delbarton has lost two games this year.

[bulax]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

Absolutely agree. I think the TOC format is the best championship of any state. Although this would directly contradict the name, I wish they had two at large spots. That way no one gets a bye, and top teams who narrowly missed out got a second chance. Group 4 north and non public A are brutal, and top teams are left on the sideline. I love it because it allows school's like Mobeard to compete for a state title while at the same time allowing one team to definitively stand on top of the pile at the end of the day.

[njlax1234]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

Absolutely agree. I think the TOC format is the best championship of any state. Although this would directly contradict the name, I wish they had two at large spots. That way no one gets a bye, and top teams who narrowly missed out got a second chance. Group 4 north and non public A are brutal, and top teams are left on the sideline. I love it because it allows school's like Mobeard to compete for a state title while at the same time allowing one team to definitively stand on top of the pile at the end of the day.

Only problem with TOC is that the six teams in it are definitely not the 6 best teams in the state. Like you said Group 4 and NPA are brutal and sure it’s good to give a team like Mobeard a chance, but I could name at least five teams in every other group that would absolutely handle Mobeard and they don’t get a chance to play for a TOC. To be completely honestly, the competition drop off in New Jersey lax is wild. The top 4-5 teams (Delbarton, Summit, Mountain Lakes, Seton Hall and not so much this year, but usually Chatham) are competitive with each other yearly and usually crush every other team except for a couple flukes like SHP’s loss to Bosco the other day. How fun would it be to see the actual top 6 teams in the state in a format like TOC?

[bulax]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

Absolutely agree. I think the TOC format is the best championship of any state. Although this would directly contradict the name, I wish they had two at large spots. That way no one gets a bye, and top teams who narrowly missed out got a second chance. Group 4 north and non public A are brutal, and top teams are left on the sideline. I love it because it allows school's like Mobeard to compete for a state title while at the same time allowing one team to definitively stand on top of the pile at the end of the day.

Only problem with TOC is that the six teams in it are definitely not the 6 best teams in the state. Like you said Group 4 and NPA are brutal and sure it’s good to give a team like Mobeard a chance, but I could name at least five teams in every other group that would absolutely handle Mobeard and they don’t get a chance to play for a TOC. To be completely honestly, the competition drop off in New Jersey lax is wild. The top 4-5 teams (Delbarton, Summit, Mountain Lakes, Seton Hall and not so much this year, but usually Chatham) are competitive with each other yearly and usually crush every other team except for a couple flukes like SHP’s loss to Bosco the other day. How fun would it be to see the actual top 6 teams in the state in a format like TOC?

Totally agree, while I love to see a team like mobeard(who is too small to have JV and has roughly 8 kids on their bench) I do wish there was a way to get the top 8 in a tournament style bracket. SHP, Delbarton, ML, Ridge, Ridgewood, and Manasquan were that upper echelon this year for me. I feel like any matchup of those teams would be very competitive in the later portion of the season. There is a substantial drop after the top, but sometimes there are weird matchups. Anyone notice Delbarton squeaked by chatham twice by a combined 4 goals? I'm hoping to see Hunterdon Central advance to the TOC. Manasquan made it apparent that they were very legit this time around, unlike last year. Moorestown looked horrible in the earlier parts of the season but by the looks of it have figured it out down the stretch. Summit looks good. Looking forward to a competitive TOC.

[njlax1234]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

Absolutely agree. I think the TOC format is the best championship of any state. Although this would directly contradict the name, I wish they had two at large spots. That way no one gets a bye, and top teams who narrowly missed out got a second chance. Group 4 north and non public A are brutal, and top teams are left on the sideline. I love it because it allows school's like Mobeard to compete for a state title while at the same time allowing one team to definitively stand on top of the pile at the end of the day.

Only problem with TOC is that the six teams in it are definitely not the 6 best teams in the state. Like you said Group 4 and NPA are brutal and sure it’s good to give a team like Mobeard a chance, but I could name at least five teams in every other group that would absolutely handle Mobeard and they don’t get a chance to play for a TOC. To be completely honestly, the competition drop off in New Jersey lax is wild. The top 4-5 teams (Delbarton, Summit, Mountain Lakes, Seton Hall and not so much this year, but usually Chatham) are competitive with each other yearly and usually crush every other team except for a couple flukes like SHP’s loss to Bosco the other day. How fun would it be to see the actual top 6 teams in the state in a format like TOC?

Totally agree, while I love to see a team like mobeard(who is too small to have JV and has roughly 8 kids on their bench) I do wish there was a way to get the top 8 in a tournament style bracket. SHP, Delbarton, ML, Ridge, Ridgewood, and Manasquan were that upper echelon this year for me. I feel like any matchup of those teams would be very competitive in the later portion of the season. There is a substantial drop after the top, but sometimes there are weird matchups. Anyone notice Delbarton squeaked by chatham twice by a combined 4 goals? I'm hoping to see Hunterdon Central advance to the TOC. Manasquan made it apparent that they were very legit this time around, unlike last year. Moorestown looked horrible in the earlier parts of the season but by the looks of it have figured it out down the stretch. Summit looks good. Looking forward to a competitive TOC.

This Montgomery/HC game is turning out to be pretty interesting. I’m thinking these will likely be the seeds going into TOC.
1. Delbarton
2. ML
3. Summit
4. Montgomery/HC
5. Chatham
6. MoBeard
Typically the first round would be tomorrow, but do you happen to know if the schedule has been changed due to the weather delays?

[bulax]

As a Mass guy, I’m continually impressed by the unsung awesomeness of NJ lax, and especially the Tournament of Champions. It seems like an amazing format that doesn’t get enough credit- these kids play in some crazy competitive sections and then play on in a state tourney? That mixes public and private? Love it. Massachusetts and CT have good/great public teams, with good tourneys, but the ISL and NEW leagues don’t fit into a state playoff format. NJ TOC might be the best all around “state championship” that a lacrosse player can earn.

Absolutely agree. I think the TOC format is the best championship of any state. Although this would directly contradict the name, I wish they had two at large spots. That way no one gets a bye, and top teams who narrowly missed out got a second chance. Group 4 north and non public A are brutal, and top teams are left on the sideline. I love it because it allows school's like Mobeard to compete for a state title while at the same time allowing one team to definitively stand on top of the pile at the end of the day.

Only problem with TOC is that the six teams in it are definitely not the 6 best teams in the state. Like you said Group 4 and NPA are brutal and sure it’s good to give a team like Mobeard a chance, but I could name at least five teams in every other group that would absolutely handle Mobeard and they don’t get a chance to play for a TOC. To be completely honestly, the competition drop off in New Jersey lax is wild. The top 4-5 teams (Delbarton, Summit, Mountain Lakes, Seton Hall and not so much this year, but usually Chatham) are competitive with each other yearly and usually crush every other team except for a couple flukes like SHP’s loss to Bosco the other day. How fun would it be to see the actual top 6 teams in the state in a format like TOC?

Totally agree, while I love to see a team like mobeard(who is too small to have JV and has roughly 8 kids on their bench) I do wish there was a way to get the top 8 in a tournament style bracket. SHP, Delbarton, ML, Ridge, Ridgewood, and Manasquan were that upper echelon this year for me. I feel like any matchup of those teams would be very competitive in the later portion of the season. There is a substantial drop after the top, but sometimes there are weird matchups. Anyone notice Delbarton squeaked by chatham twice by a combined 4 goals? I'm hoping to see Hunterdon Central advance to the TOC. Manasquan made it apparent that they were very legit this time around, unlike last year. Moorestown looked horrible in the earlier parts of the season but by the looks of it have figured it out down the stretch. Summit looks good. Looking forward to a competitive TOC.

This Montgomery/HC game is turning out to be pretty interesting. I’m thinking these will likely be the seeds going into TOC.
1. Delbarton
2. ML
3. Summit
4. Montgomery/HC
5. Chatham
6. MoBeard
Typically the first round would be tomorrow, but do you happen to know if the schedule has been changed due to the weather delays?

Montgomery takes it, I thought that was an awesome game. A lot of students from both schools. HC just needed to play less panicked towards the end imo. First round of the TOC will be played monday. Also Moorestown won, not Chatham. Normally I am not a fan of the nike sleeveless jerseys, but HC's color scheme and the use of black shooting shirts with red uniforms and black helmets looked very cool.

My seeds are the same:
1. Delbarton
2. ML
3. Summit
4. Montgomery
5. Moorestown
6. MoBeard

[Blackdoglax]

The TOC is the BEST HS Tournament anywhere. Public (Big and small) vs Non Public (Big and small).....

In terms on people complaining about the Non Public B bracket and Mo Beard in particular, it is what what it is.

I would point you to every Southern NJ Group that is lesser than almost every Northern NJ Group.

Also, how about Lakes dominating Group 1 for years.

Summit and Chatham killed each other for years for Group 2 dominance.

How about the talent in Non Public for years with only one winner....

None of this matters- the top 4 teams playing in the last 3 games are Epic and we are lucky to have them....