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7.0 years ago by Josh Friedman

Haddonfield boys lacrosse turn it around

The Bulldawgs entered Wednesday with a  6-4 record, already surpassing the squad’s win total from both 2015 and 2013 (five).

“This season has been awesome so far,” senior goalie Ian Reilly said. “We’ve beaten a lot of big-name teams and we just go out every game as if it’s a state championship. We want to have that winning record and we’re hungry.”

The passion was lacking last season, in part because Haddonfield was so young. The team only had one senior regular, and no one stepped into a leadership role.

That hasn’t been a problem this year as the Bulldawgs have seven seniors, each of whom has helped the squad find its direction.

“We’ve all taken our place on the team trying to motivate everyone, and I think even some of the younger guys stepped up,” said Gavin Cutino, who leads the team with 21 goals and is one of three senior captains along with Kyle Wolff and Jack Melendes. “They know their role now and everyone is kind of working as one unit. Everyone is kind of helping each other out, patting each other on the back when they do something good. I think that’s fueled our team and fueled our momentum this season, and I think that’s been the key difference.”

That leadership has helped the team bond as well.

“I think they enjoy each other, a lot,” Legato said. “I think that’s really one of the toughest things as a coach, sometimes you have teams that don’t enjoy each other, and I think that this team definitely does.”

Sophomore midfielder Mitchell Rothstein noticed a difference in the Bulldawgs immediately.

“I thought after the first practice we were going to be better than we were last year,” he said. “The amount of intensity and how hard players were going and giving it their all, last year it was kind of tough coming off games losing by 10 goals, and this year to beat teams by 10 goals and come out with the intensity we did is a big deal.”

The biggest eye-opener for Reilly was Haddonfield’s 6-5 victory over Shawnee on April 9. The Bulldawgs hadn’t beaten the Renegades since 2012, Legato’s first year.

“No one ever thought we would beat them,” Reilly said.

Haddonfield’s confidence grew that game and took another step forward when the Bulldawgs topped Clearview 10-9 on April 21. They’d lost to the Pioneers by five goals in the season opener.

“It’s kind of been, I don’t want to say a blemish on the town, but (the lacrosse team) hasn’t been up to par with a lot of the other sports here,” Rothstein said. “So getting Haddonfield lacrosse up there with a lot of other sports, football (for example), it’s a big jump for our program.”

And though Haddonfield has lost back-to-back games since that win, the team is still excited with their progress.

“We know how much potential we have,” Reilly said, “so we just want to keep it going.”

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