Windmill Team of the Week: Middletown South

Every week this spring, Windmill Restaurants and Shore Sports Network will be selecting a Boys Lacrosse Team of the Week based on its performance over the past week.

The Windmill Team of the Week for Week 4 is Middletown South, which picked up the program’s signature win and extended a long winning streak to continue the best season in school history. Shore Sports Network and Windmill were at practice Tuesday to present the Eagles and head coach Rob Grella with a special Team of the Week certificate and a $300 Windmill gift card.

The Eagles began the week by defeating last week’s No. 3 team, Freehold Township, 9-8 for the biggest win in program history. Sophomore Connor Ard scored five goals with one assist and sophomore Shane Murphy made 13 saves to lead the way.

The Eagles second game of the week resulted in an 11-1 win over Wardlaw-Hartridge where Carter Lenhard, Aidan Kane and Dan Rossi each scored twice to push the team’s winning streak to eight games.

Middletown South continued its winning ways on Monday with a 10-6 win over Toms River East to make it nine wins in a row. Junior midfielder Matt Tardy scored five goals and senior Dan Rossi added a hat trick.

Ard is the team’s leader in goals with 26 while Tardy has a team-high 31 points on 21 goals and 10 assists. Rossi has 23 goals, Jason Allen has 16 goals and Matt Fallon, Carter Lenhard, Matt Ferrigno and Chris Lucyk also have double-digit point totals. Murphy has been solid in goal with 73 saves.

Middletown South won nine games in each of its first two seasons under Grella and has broken through in a major way this season with a school-record 12 wins and enters Wednesday with a 12-2 record. They have a game against No. 10 Howell on Wednesday night and also games with Barnegat and Middletown North left on their schedule, plus the Shore Conference Tournament, which will be seeded Wednesday night and begin on Thursday with the preliminary-round games.

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