Chatham Boy’s Lacrosse Routs Hun School with Second Half Total Team Barrage

Chatham High School (N.J.) Boy’s lacrosse squad has been a second half team through the early part of the 2025 season.

That was evident when the Cougars (4-0) scored nine goals in the second half to fly by Hun School of Princeton, 16-6, Saturday afternoon at a rain-soaked Cougar Field.

Chatham head coach Christian Scarpello said that its main faceoff guy, Colton Walsh, was absent, forcing him to get creative with his options until it clicked. His coaching efforts proved to do the trick for the Cougars.

“The guys woke up at half, playing a little bit slow (before that),” Scarpello said. “We played without our starting faceoff guy, Colton, so we obviously lost a lot of draws and played a lot of defense in the first half.

“We made a couple adjustments at the X, putting out Danny O’Brien and a couple of other guys that were able to win the ball for us,” he continued. “And obliviously, for us, with the ball, good things happen with this offense.”

The other part of the winning equation was Chatham’s defense, which came up big on the offensive end, too, noted Scarpello, who played Division I lacrosse at Rutgers and plays professionally for the Philadelphia Waterdogs of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL).

“We wanted that to be part of our identity ever since I took over here,” he said. “We played a lot of transition at Rutgers. I think we got the personnel, and now I kind of understand it more. So, (I) love to see our D guys getting into the offense.”

Scarpello, not one to point fingers at the officials, said they did keep the Raiders (0-2) in the tilt.

“Honestly, I’m not going to say,” Scarpello said of the officiating. “I hate talking about refs in general, but it was obvious, too obvious, that they were giving calls, and that’s not how you ref the game. But it is what it is.”

Defensively, junior Lochlan Mahoney scooped up four ground balls, while senior Carter Newman had three and a helper, and junior Michael Freeman gave a stalwart effort on his part with solid play and a ground ball pick up.

Junior Kyle Gibney found the back of the net six times, had an assist, and scooped up two ground balls in the lopsided victory.

Leading by a score of 7-4 at the break, the Cougars started to distance itself from Hun with a 11-5 lead at the end of the third period. Unfortunately for Hun, the fourth quarter spelled doom for the opposition.

“We started slow during the game and the message during halftime was to come out fast, Gibney said. “This team shouldn’t be on the same field as us, which is what we did. We just knocked them out in the third quarter.”

Sophomores Nicholas Lagunowich and Charlie Dunn tallied three markers apiece, with “Nicky Lax” registering two assists for a total of five points. Junior Shep Boyd (photo to the left) had a goal, a helper, and picked up three ground balls.

Chatham faces off against Ridgewood Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

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— Jerry Del Priore