New Providence Boys' LAX Falls to Verona in State Tournament

Down by four goals with less than four minutes to go, the New Providence boys’ varsity lacrosse team could have packed it in.

They proved to be most dangerous in the final minutes of the fourth quarter Thursday afternoon, scoring four unanswered goals to send a state tournament game into overtime.

Although host Verona ended up prevailing 9-8 after scoring one minute into the four-minute, sudden death period, New Providence showed how well it could perform when it plays as a team.

“This is lousy, but I couldn’t be more proud of this team for the way it fought back,” New Providence head coach Vinny Carangelo said.

Senior captain Richard Nelson, who paced 17th-seeded New Providence with three goals and two assists against Verona, assisted ’s second goal of the game with just 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter that tied the contest at 8-8.

“David is fantastic on faceoffs,” said Nelson, who is going to Washington and Lee for football this fall, and will also attempt to walk onto the lacrosse team. “We got over our nerves after we were down 8-4 and everything molded together. For some reason, we seem to play better later in the game. We definitely left it all out on the field.”

Verona, which improved to 12-5 and will play at top-seeded Mountain Lakes on Tuesday in the first round, received three goals from seniors Colin Farawell – he scored the game’s first and last goals – and Tom McManus. Fellow senior Cooper Neale scored two goals and assisted on two others.

Verona took a 3-0 lead before Nelson scored his first goal in the second quarter. Verona had two-goal leads of 3-1, 4-2, 5-3, 6-4 and 8-6 before New Providence eventually tied the game inside of a minute to go. The Hillbillies led the entire game, including a 2-0 advantage after the first quarter.

“The moment in the beginning may have been a little too big,” Carangelo said. “When the chips are down, we seem to play looser and are more effective.”

After goals by McManus and Greg Schiffenhaus put Verona up 8-4 almost six minutes into the fourth quarter, it was the Hillbillies who called a timeout.

New Providence regrouped and then over the final four minutes of the fourth quarter played, perhaps, their best lacrosse of the season.

“Coach said to turn it on and play for pride because this was going to be our last game, before we found out we were going to have one more against Bernards [this Saturday],” Nelson said.

New Providence freshman James Burke scored unassisted with 3:54 to go in the fourth to make it 8-5. Then – exactly a minute later - Barletta fired in his first goal of the game, shooting the ball straight on and past Verona goalie Taylor Delcolle for an 8-6 score.

With 2:22 left, New Providence called its final timeout after gaining a ground ball.

Nelson scored his third goal with 1:38 left to pull the Pioneers to within one for the first time at 8-7.

At that point, New Providence – thanks to the fine play of Barletta and Derek Singer – were winning every faceoff and gaining every ground ball.

Then Nelson was able to feed Barletta, who fired a shot in that tied the game with 40 seconds to go. Nelson was able to get off one more shot with three seconds left that went over the goalie’s head, with the game moving to overtime.

New Providence also fired the first shot in overtime, which Delcolle made a fine save on.

Then the Hillbillies came down and Farawell was able to get off a shot that just trickled past New Providence sophomore goalie , who had a fine game and made 12 saves.

“On our best day, we can play with anyone. We have to play four solid quarters to do that. Down 8-4, we still believed in ourselves and started to play as a team,” Carangelo said. “Those things sound corny, I know, but they’re true.”

Singer, a sophomore, contributed one goal and one assist, as did freshman Jonathan Ebert.

“Dave [Barletta and] Derek [Singer] are first and second in the state in ground balls because they’re always out there, they run like horses,” Carangelo said.

Carangelo said that New Providence is only losing two seniors and three juniors at the end of this season. Nelson will be missed, but he has showed great leadership this season.

“Richard’s had a fantastic four years,” Carangelo said. “We expect him to play like this all the time. He matured this year and showed a great deal of character.”

“This has been a great experience for me,” Nelson said. “If we play hard, win or lose, we will do well.”

New Providence found out Thursday that the team has one more game remaining, which will be at Bernards on Saturday at 11 a.m.

With the Pioneers now at 10-10, that season-finale will be for a winning campaign. New Providence also gets one more chance to set the school record for wins in a season. According to Carangelo, the 2004 squad also won 10 games.

“We all want to go out with a win,” Nelson said.

BOYS’ LACROSSE GROUP 1 PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME

AT CENTENNIAL FIELD IN VERONA

17-NEW PROVIDENCE (10-10)                 0     1     3     4     0 - 8

16-VERONA (12-5)                                     2     1     3     2     1 - 9

NEW PROVIDENCE: Goals - Richard Nelson 3, David Barletta 2, Derek Singer, Jonathan Ebert, James Burke. Assists - Richard Nelson 2, Jonathan Ebert, Derek Singer.

VERONA: Goals – Colin Farawell 3, Tom McManus 3, Cooper Neale 2, Greg Schiffenhaus. Assists – Cooper Neale 2, Greg Keating 2.

SHOTS: New Providence – 26, Verona – 33

SAVES: New Providence, Brian Valerio, 12. Verona, Taylor Delcolle, 10.