By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HAMMONTON — Leading a brand new boys lacrosse program — one in which only four of the more than two dozen players had ever played lacrosse prior to last spring — Hammonton head coach Ryan Prendergast wasn’t sure how long it would take his Blue Devils to record their first win in program history.
Turns out, the former Notre Dame High player only had to wait four games.
On a cold, blustery Tuesday afternoon, the Blue Devils shut down visiting Millville, 5-1, to win not only their home opener, but the first game ever for the program that’s in its inaugural year after a sort of “practice” season last spring. It’s been a steady improvement for a Hammonton team that lost 18-3 to Middle Township in the season opener, then 15-6 to West Deptford. The Blue Devils closed out last week with an 8-6 loss to Sterling, inching closer to win No. 1.
“It feels good. They’ve been working really hard for it,” Prendergast said. “We wish we could have showcased a cleaner game, but a win is a win. What I’ve been looking for is exactly what I’ve been seeing — keeping our heads and learning the game the game the simple way. Just keeping it simple and learning how to play lacrosse, and coming together as a team. As the experience comes, we will stack the wins, as these kids are seeing. We started off the season pretty rough, but they are slowly putting it together and figuring it out.
“We have a good group, and like I told other people who have asked me, it’s a credit to the community and the kids at the school buying in.”
“Win No. 1 is big. We’ve been working for this for more than a year now. This is a big achievement for us,” said senior attack Zachary Schaeffer. “We still have a long way to go, this was a little bit of a sloppy game, but we’ll get there.”
Hammonton (1-3, 1-0 Cape-Atlantic League National) got off to a good start, taking a 2-0 first-quarter lead on the Thunderbolts. Sophomore Stephen Ruhf got the Blue Devils started by scoring less than two minutes into the game, and fellow sophomore Tyler Vento added to the lead with 4:14 left in the first quarter. Millville (0-6, 0-3 CAL National) answered with a goal late in the second quarter by senior midfielder Nick Hurley, but third-quarter goals by Hammonton’s Jack Gerber and Christian Digerolamo gave the Blue Devils a lead they were never going to give up.
“That did definitely take a lot of pressure off of us,” Schaeffer said of the first-quarter goals. “The grit was there today and we did some good things in the second half. They were definitely a physical team. Every game presents a new challenge and it was nice to face a team like that. It helps us improve our physical game as well as our tactical game.”
“It’s been amazing. We’ve really grown from last year, growing as a club sport. We had an intersquad scrimmage to end the season last year, and that was a lot of fun, but this year it’s different because we’re actually playing other teams. We’re all learning a lot. It’s amazing (to get the first win). As a senior, that’s all you can hope for when you’re starting out a new program,” said fellow senior Carmen Dych. “We’ve always had a great mindset, no matter the outcome (of each game). We’ve always been a good team mentally. It’s a very mental game. The physical side is easy — it’s easy to hit kids, right? But knowing what to do and how to play is definitely a learning curve. But we have great team chemistry. We come together every day in practice and build each other up, and that’s fun to see.”
So, what will it take for the Blue Devils to continue to build from this win?
“To build on from this game, we have to work on our passes a bit more and come out a little stronger in the first half. We don’t only want to be known as a second-half team, we want to be known as a team that plays well the whole game,” Schaeffer said.
In terms of the more long-term view of the program, Prendergast said he loves the start his team has had, but eventually it will take establishing a feeder program to make Hammonton consistently competitive.
“That’s my next goal is to grow the game in town with the kids younger than in high school so that we get kids who have a little more experience and you don’t have to, on the fly, teach them the game as you’re playing,” he said. “They figure it out quickly, this is a tough game but they are learning it pretty fast. If we can have a little more experience, I think that will ramp up the building of the program.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Hammonton travels to Haddon Township on Thursday at 4 p.m. Millville hosts Sterling on Thursday at 4 p.m.
