The Alternative Press

SUMMIT, NJ – The Summit Hilltoppers have long put that crushing 10-7 loss to Ridgewood last week behind them. After losing in the regular season for the first time in over three years, they have rebounded in a big way so far in the NJSIAA state tournament by outscoring their two opponents 30-1.

About half of those goals came against AL Johnson High School on Tuesday afternoon at Investors Bank Field.  Summit, the top seed in their group and second seed in the Star Ledger Top Twenty, built an 11-0 lead at halftime before cruising to a 14-1 win in the second round of the NJSIAA Group 1 tournament.

Junior attack Austin Carbone led the way with a season high six goals and an assist, senior Harry McCreary finished with a season high five goals, Nick Kilkowski had two goals and an assist and Tom Lackaye added a goal.

“We were just able to move the ball around… and just really play well out there. This is our home field. We were going to come out…and not really give up anything,” McCreary said.

Like almost every other Summit victory this season, they were able to take control of the game right off the opening face-off by excelling at the two most important aspects of a lacrosse game; strong defense and possession.

Through the first 24 minutes of play the Summit offense had fired 21 shots on goals compared to just three for AL Johnson. Lackaye, Ryan Bringewatt and company helped to win eight out of 13 draws and they outdid the away team 17 to 13 in groundballs through the first half.

“Defense did a great job; Alex Salazar made some great saves (he finished with four). They just really did well out there,” McCreary commented about the other side of the ball.

Kilkowski opened up the scoring just 1:05 in when he made a nice move past a couple of defensemen before blasting in a shot from the right slot.  He scored a few minutes later off a nice feed from teammate Matt Maier to make the score 3-0.

Carbone then put in the next three for Summit in a span of just over three minutes and then rounded out the scoring in the first when he lasered a shot in from the slot with just 1.4 seconds on the clock as they took a commanding 8-0 lead at the end of one.

After some strong defensive play from the likes of Will Weber and Billy Shamim in the beginning of the second quarter, Carbone continued his offensive onslaught midway through by scoring two in a row in just 38 seconds.

McCreary’s stick began to heat up also in the second as he scored the last goal of the first half to put Summit up by 11.  The first three of the second half belonged to him as well; helping Summit build a 14-0 lead with 4:05 left in the contest.

“I was getting great feeds from all my attack.  They really fed me well.  I just put the ball in,” McCreary told The Alternative Press of his offensive production.

With the win, Summit advances to the third round of the North 1 NJSIAA tournament. They will play host to Mahwah High School, the ninth seed in the tournament, this Thursday at either 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m.

And as every team still alive in the state knows, the further you make it into tournament play, the harder the games get. Summit knows that all too well and is perhaps a big reason why they have made it to the tournament of championship game the past three years in a row and are currently pushing for their fourth straight appearance.

“It’s going to be a battle the whole way though. We know that. We just got to get the groundballs and finish our shots. Hopefully the results will follow,” McCreary said.