UNRIVALED: Rumson-Fair Haven boys lacrosse wins third straight Shore Conference Tournament title
WEST LONG BRANCH -- When the current Rumson-Fair Haven boys lacrosse senior class first entered high school they were met with the harsh reality of a canceled season. That lost 2020 spring wiped out their freshman season, but for this exceptional group, it merely delayed their lasting impact on the winningest lacrosse program in Shore Conference history.
They hit the ground running as sophomores, and three years later they stood at the center of Monmouth University's Hesse Field celebrating a perfect run that re-established Rumson as the Shore's premier boys lacrosse program.
Senior attackman Cole Cashion scored three goals, junior face-off specialist Luke Marascio won 16 of 19 at the X, and senior goalie Marshall Halfacre turned aside eight shots as the top-seeded and top-ranked Bulldogs defeated No. 3 Manasquan, 10-5, on Monday night to secure their third consecutive Shore Conference Tournament championship.
Senior defenseman Beau Kemler and freshman attackman Luke Lydon each scored twice while junior midfielder Andy Croddick had a goal and an assist and sophomores Grayson Goldin and Vincent Raphalian scored one goal apiece.
Check back for a photo gallery by Tom Smith.
Rumson opened a 2-0 lead on goals by Cashion and Croddick but Manasquan (14-4) answered to tie the score on a pair of goals by senior attackman Matt Porazzo. The teams traded goals until Rumson began to pull away in the second half. Kemler's first tally gave Rumson (16-4) a 5-3 lead at halftime and Cashion scored early in the second half for a 6-3 advantage. Rumson led 7-4 entering the fourth quarter before goals by Goldin and Raphalian in the first 75 seconds of the final period put the Bulldogs up 9-4 and sent them on their way to the program's record-extending ninth SCT championship.
"It's amazing," Kemler said. "It's everything we've worked for, everything we've dreamed of since we were little kids. And to make it come true is truly special."
"Us seniors chose the public school route and that's built our culture tremendously," Cashion said. "We didn't go to a private school and leave our brothers behind, and we've been building on that. It means everything for us to three-peat."
As sophomores in 2021, Cashion, Kemler, Halfacre, goalie Will Setteducate, LSM Matthew Bockelmann, defensemen Luke Jamin and Will Rehder, midfielder Zach Iwan, attackman Bryce Devlin, midfielder Quinn Lumsden, and midfielder Ethan Smith contributed to a team that won 20 straight games to start the season and took back the SCT title before falling to Summit in the Group 2 state championship. Cashion, Kamler, and Bocklemann were All-Shore players in their first season.
As juniors last year, the 2023 group helped lead Rumson to the greatest season by a boys lacrosse team in Shore Conference history. The Bulldogs won a second straight SCT title, won the South Jersey Group 2 sectional title, and then beat Summit to capture the NJSIAA Group 2 championship. They then became the first Shore Conference team to reach the Tournament of Champions final before ultimately falling to Mountain Lakes in the last official NJSIAA T.O.C.
This season - with the aforementioned seniors plus a new senior in football standout Ryan Kalman - has been more of the same with another division championship and a third straight conference crown so far. Rumson's last loss to a Shore Conference team was in the 2019 SCT final. Since then the Bulldogs have ripped off 38 straight wins over conference opponents, and this season they've done so while facing their share of adversity.
"The culture started to change their freshman year and they really took that and just accelerated it over these last year years," said Rumson head coach Marc Moreau. "I'm so proud of these guys. We lost an All-American LSM (Matthew Bockelmann to an offseason injury), a starting defender (Rehder), lost our goalie (Setteducate) eight games ago, (Matthew) Casazza couldn't go until four games ago, and we haven't missed a beat. It's a credit to the seniors. They didn't just feel sorry for themselves, they put their heads down and kept working. Guys stepped up and other guys helped them step up. This is the result. I can't say enough good things about them."
Check back for a photo gallery by Tom Smith.
Between 2009 and 2017, Rumson became the standard in the Shore Conference by reaching nine consecutive SCT championship games and winning five titles, including four in a row from 2011-2014. Their dominance in the Shore and success at the state level became the bar the rest of the conference desired to clear. Jackson Memorial rose up to challenge Rumson in 2011 and 2012. Then it was Southern Regional tasting defeat at the hands of RFH in two straight SCT finals before finally reaching the top in 2015. Throughout that stretch, however, Rumson was still the Shore Conference's flagship program.
That began to change in 2017 when Manasquan won the SCT championship, although Rumson would earn payback with a 5-4 win in the South Jersey Group 2 sectional final. Manasquan blossomed into a juggernaut, won two more SCT titles in 2018 and 2019, and handily defeated RFH en route to a third straight conference title. After a decade at the top, Rumson had been dethroned as the king of Shore Conference boys lacrosse.
Watching those games from the stands and along the fence was a group of middle school standouts beginning to plot their high school careers.
"I think when we all started taking lacrosse more seriously and knew we were going to pursue it in high school was those 2017, 18, 19 years when Manasquan went on their run," Kemler said. "We saw them winning every year. We were at those RFH games as young kids and it hurt seeing them lose. We knew we had to work extra hard to be here."
That drive combined with the talent they already possessed and have continued to hone propelled Rumson back to the throne. It enabled the Bulldogs to square off against a very talented Manasquan team playing its best lacrosse of the season and walk away with a five-goal victory.
Check back for a photo gallery by Tom Smith.
Porazzo finished with a game-high four goals for Manasquan and his first two tied the score 2-2 with 1:25 left in the first quarter. Cashion gave Rumson the lead right back when he dodged in front from X and scored with 35 seconds left. Manasquan senior midfielder Blake Gorski tied the score at three with a goal at 9:13 of the second quarter.
The game remained deadlocked at three until a defensive-zone turnover yielded an easy goal for Rumson. With junior goalie Nick Bounassi out the net, Manasquan turned the ball over and Casazza pounced on it at X. With the net vacant, he dished in front to Lydon for an easy go and a 4-3 Bulldogs lead. Three minutes later, Kemler scored with a high blast from distance to give Rumson a 5-3 halftime edge.
"We read this book last year called "The Energy Bus" and I feel Beau is the driver of it for us," Cashion said. "We he comes down and scores a goal everyone gets so hyped."
The momentum extended into the third quarter when Cashion scored his third goal of the game 44 seconds into the half to extend Rumson's lead to 6-3. Kemler's second of the game made it 7-3 before Manasquan halted RFH's four-goal run when Porazzo sank his third goal off a setup from senior James Farinacci. At the other end, Bounsassi was outstanding and finished with 13 saves, keeping Manasquan in the game despite heavy pressure from Rumson early in the first quarter and again in the third.
Rumson led 7-4 heading to the final 12 minutes and quickly stretched its lead to 9-4 on a pinpoint rocket from Goldin and a goal by Raphalian off a pass from Croddick. Porazzo's fourth goal made it 9-5 before Lydon iced the game with a final strike with 1:28 on the clock.
"We started playing more as a team, playing more RFH lacrosse, pushing it up and down," Kemler said. "We won every face-off so shout out to Rash (Marascio)."
"(Manasquan) is really good and this isn't your everyday regular-season environment, and I think we were a little nervous," Moreau said. "I think we were squeezing our sticks on offense early on. Marascio winning face-offs and giving us the ball back whether they scored or we scored, we didn't have to give one up and go play defense again, and that makes a big difference."
"And Cashion, what else can you say at this point? He knows when we need something, knows when to pull it out, he's the one talking to the other guys in timeouts about what we need to do better. He's like another coach out there. I just think we stuck with it and we didn't panic or lose focus. We started to execute better and I think we play a few more guys than they do and that made a difference at the end, as well."
Check back for a photo gallery by Tom Smith.
The play of a team's specialists is obviously critical to its success, and along with Marascio at the face-off X, Rumson has received great play from Halfacre in the games he has started since Setteducte suffered an injury on May 5. He made three impactful saves in the second quarter when Manasquan was buzzing and threatening to take the lead. Halfacre has won six straight starts and owns a 66% save percentage in 11 games played.
"I think that goes to his character as a person," Kemler said. "He's an amazing kid, he works hard, and he will do whatever it takes to win games. He's been working hard and ready to play every game so we all knew he would step in and do what he's done."
There is a chance Rumson could meet another Shore Conference team in the NJSIAA playoffs either with Shore Regional in the sectional tournament and potentially Manasquan or Wall in the Kirst Cup this summer. But it is more likely that the Shore Conference chapter has closed for Rumson's seniors.
What a ride it has been. 38 wins, 0 losses, and a legacy of lacrosse perfection at the Jersey Shore.
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