Chatham Lacrosse Regains Winning Ways Against Hunterdon

The Cougars gave the Red Devils hell.

Coming off of a pair of losses—including a 14-7 setback to the No. 1 ranked lacrosse team in the country, Haverford School—Chatham defeated Hunterdon Central, 7-2, on Monday to improve to 6-2 on the season.

"We really concentrated on defense the last couple of days," said Chatham Head Coach Anthony Calandra. "I thought giving up two goals was a great effort against a very good team."

Neither team managed to get on the board in the first quarter, but the Cougars roared in the second stanza to take command of  the contest.

With 11:03 left in the second, Rob Guida took a pass in front of the crease from Matt Proto and redirected it past Jake Anderson to put Chatham up 1-0. Fifteen seconds later, Guida took a shot from about 12 yards out to beat Anderson and the Cougars were ahead by a pair.

Just prior to the midway point of the second, Mac Nestler made a point-blank save to preserve the shutout for the time being.

"I was seeing the ball well," said Nestler, who made 10 saves on the day. "I knew I had to step up and I just made the save."

Andy MacLeod added a goal from 15 yards out—his first varsity score—and Proto also snuck in a bounce shot with just under 4 1/2 minutes left to give the home team a 4-0 edge at the half.

However, the Red Devils put the kibosh on the goose egg early in the third. With Quinn Frenzel in the penalty box, Mike Furstenburg beat Nestler to pull Hunterdon Central within three goals.

With 7:39 remaining in the third, though, Guida found the back of the net to once again make it a four-goal difference.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, the Red Devils struck 19 seconds later as Furstenburg tallied to close it to 5-2. That was as close as Hunterdon Central would get the rest of the game, though.

Proto's high bounce shot and Frenzel's quick-stick goal gave the Cougars a 7-2 advantage that lasted through the fourth quarter, as Hunterdon Central fell to 4-5 on the year.

"The first couple of minutes of the second half are big for us," Calandra said. "If we are leading we want to try to stretch the lead and take control of the game, not go backwards."