MSHLAX 5th Grade Weekend Recap Clark, Somerset Hills, and Madison

K Grammaticas
MSHLAX Fifth Grade Recap Clark, Somerset Hills, and Madison

The 5th Grade Boys MSHLAX team had a slow start to their games last week but came back with intensity and focus to win against two challenging teams leaving the weekend with an improved record of 8-4.

The Millers traveled to Clark on Tuesday (4/30) and suffered a 4-6 loss.Their solid defense held their own but the energetic Clark team took advantage of slow transitions. Despite the efforts of attackmen Parker Justice, Oliver Becker, and midfielder Jack Gukassey, who were able to notch goals on the impressive Clark goalie, many plays were unable to come to fruition. The Millers were not connecting their passes, unlucky in face offs and could not turn it around in the last quarter despite numerous drives.
Coaches Eric Dieckman, Gary Gukassey, Rand Frolich and Jared Solomon, who ran the Clark game for the Millers, all contributed the loss to careless errors and effort. “The lethargic Millers faced a hard nosed Clark team,” said Solomon. The idea, as Dieckman mentioned to the boys post game, was to learn from their mistakes and focus on their next opponent.

The fifth graders took their coach’s advice and were able to focus on the next match arriving at Somerset Hills on Friday (5/3) ready to play and motivated- upsetting their opponent 6-5. An extremely competitive match, there was never more than a goal difference. The emotions ran high between the young laxers as both teams arrived intent on winning.
Leading the defense for Millburn, JP Maggio and Wes Dieckman had a combined three caused turnovers with the help of Wade Schmell and long stick middie Jack Smith who hustled and kept up with the quick Somerset offense.
Mid field was led by Luke Greenseid and Henry Foster who were crucial in transitions with important mid field catches helping the offensive with quick breaks to goal. Foster helped maintain possession with six won face offs.
The offensive drive was relentless during the game and the Millers had an incredible 20 shots on goal. Reese Solomon sprinted hard to keep Miller possession and Justice led the Miller offense with two goals along with a goal each by Becker and Luke Betlow. The exciting game winning goal was from midfielder Nathan Scheck who side armed rocketed the ball into the opponent’s net.

Continuing their momentum the Millers bested rival Madison 7-3 at a rainy home game on Sunday (5/5). With many players out, the Millers needed to use the depth of their team to keep up with an always competitive, and 30 player deep, Madison team.

The defense held their ground with Maggio and Dieckmann taking the lead. The Millers rotation of Miles Welner, Jordan Roth, and Max Ventura contributed to their defensive shield against the Madison offense. Goalie Shane Posner held his ground and continually aided in offensive opportunities with multiple open field clears.
Mid fielders Jack Gukassey and Henry Foster held down the mid field with the help of outstanding performances by long stick middie Jack Smith, who hustled and gathered up ball after ball to maintain Miller possession, and Tim Chinchilla who used his wheels and determination to block defenders while also aiding in offensive drives.

Offense was owned by Parker and Betlow- each with their own hat tricks for the day- raining shots on the Madison goalie. Foster rounded out the scoring and the Millers were happy to reclaim their standard by notching a solid win against another competitive program.
“Our boys are in the midst of learning that there is a correlation between hard work and positive results,” Coach Justice reflected on the three games. “Games like Clark show what happens when we lose our focus; games like Somerset Hills and Madison show what happens when we stick to the mission- when we play like those are the only 48 minutes that will ever matter.”

The 5th grade boys will play Summit this Wednesday in Summit at 6:30pm.

Clark statistics: Shane Posner in goal. Goals: Oliver Becker (1), Parker Justice (2), Jack Gukassey (1)
Somerset Hills statistics: Shane Posner in goal. Goals: Oliver Becker (1) Parker Justice (2), Zev Fine (1), Nathan Scheck (1), Luke Betlow (1)
Madison statistics: Shane Posner in goal. Goals: Luke Betlow (3), Parker Justice (3), Henry Foster (1)