HIGH FIVE: Princeton High boys’ lacrosse player Michael Frenia heads to goal in a game earlier this season. Last Saturday, junior midfielder Frenia tallied five goals and one assist in a losing cause as fourth-seeded PHS fell 10-9 to fifth-seeded Hopewell Valley in the quarterfinal round of the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Tournament. The Tigers, who moved to 10-7 with the defeat, play at Princeton Day School on May 18. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)

By Bill Alden

It didn’t take long for Michael Frenia to make an impact for the Princeton High boys’ lacrosse team as it hosted Hopewell Valley in a Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) Tournament quarterfinal clash last Saturday.

PHS junior midfielder Frenia tallied three goals in the first 13 minutes of the contest as the fourth-seeded Tigers went up 3-2 over the fifth-seeded Bulldogs.

As Frenia hit the field on Saturday, he was in a good place. “I got out of bed early this morning and I ate a good breakfast,” said Frenia. “I was shooting good in warm ups so that helped me.”

But HoVal started burying some shots as it built a 6-4 halftime lead. After the Bulldogs extended their advantage to 8-5, the Tigers battled back. With Frenia adding another goal, PHS rallied to tie the game at 8-8.

“I knew it was doable,” said Frenia, reflecting on the rally by the Tigers. “It is the next goal, you are always thinking the next goal.”

After the foes traded goals, HoVal got the last tally of the game as it scored with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter to pull out a 10-9 win.

The Tigers did get one last possession and Frenia had the ball on his stick in the waning seconds of the contest.

“I was supposed to get a screen and come across the alley,” said Frenia, who ended up with five goals and one assist in the defeat. “If I had the shot, I was supposed to take it but their pole saw that coming and he was playing far out. I threw a bad pass.”

Frenia was not surprised that the clash between rivals turned into a nail-biter.

“We just played North and we kind of knew that we were going to win that game,” said Frenia, referring to a 14-2 win over 13th-seeded WW/P-North in the first round of the CVC last Wednesday. “Every time we have played Hopewell, they have knocked us out with in the years I have been here. We always have to expect a battle.”

Having tallied 41 goals and 13 assists so far this spring after scoring 16 goals with 11 assists as a sophomore, Frenia has raised his game, helped by a connection with junior attacker Gavin Pomraning.

“My role has stepped up,” said Frenia. “Last year, I was just more of shooter. Brendan Beatty did a lot of dodging. This year I had to take more of a dodging role with Gavin. It definitely helps shooting when you have someone like him. Me and Gavin have been playing together for a while.”

PHS head coach Chip Casto acknowledged that HoVal made things tough on the Tiger attack.

“They had seen our zone enough to figure it out a little and they got some really good looks,” said Casto. “We had to mismatch our personnel a little bit coming in so we just weren’t clicking and they did very well.”

The arrival of senior faceoff specialist Carmine Carusone for the second half as he was returning from his brother’s college graduation helped the PHS offense click better.

“It is great when you can have a senior who has played to come in,” said Casto. “Obviously he brought a little boost, but not one guy is going to win the game.”

Casto liked how his players gamely fought back after falling behind 8-5.

“We talked about the Allentown game being down two in the fourth and being gritty and keep fighting,” said Casto, referring to a 7-6 win over the Redbirds on April 28. “They did and it was tied.”

The one-two combination of Frenia and Pomraning, who ended up with four assists in the day, helped key the PHS comeback.

“Michael is a monster, he is starting to emerge,” said Casto. “They did a great thing shutting Gavin off. We just couldn’t figure that out for a while. He did his job.”

The HoVal defense, though, got the job done as it stymied the Tigers in the final sequence of the contest.

“We were just trying to keep them busy off ball and let Michael and Gavin do their thing,” said Casto, whose team moved to 10-7 with defeat. “They play well, they know what we are doing too.”

At the defensive end, PHS tightened things up in the second half.

“They had the one wrinkle where they double cut the crease and pop off so we were just trying to make adjustments to that which we did pretty well,” said Casto. “Our adjustments started to work out a little and late in the game coach [Peter] Stanton had a great call to play man not zone for their last possession. They adjusted and ran a pick play and got a good shot.”

The Tiger goalie tandem of sophomore Sam Gibb (4 saves) and senior Jacob Topolewski (8 saves) helped hold the fort.

“Sam played back to where he was at the end of last year,” said Casto. “Jacob had a great first half, he stopped a couple of stingers, they were getting good shots early. I am very proud of both of them.”

With the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) state tournament starting later this month, Casto believes his squad can take some valuable lessons from the setback.

“We are going to hit the film in the next couple of days,” said Casto, whose team plays at Princeton Day School on May 18. “We can go back and kind of go into a preseason mode, get healthy and have a mini end of the year training camp and move forward.”

Frenia, for his part, is confident that PHS will get better moving forward.

“I feel like every loss is a game you can build off and the close ones help us a lot more,” said Frenia.