Coach: ‘Delaware Valley Boys lacrosse team united as champions’

By Josh Lashley
MILFORD — The 2018 Delaware Valley High School boys lacrosse team was well prepared — and it’s not just because they were champions.
The Warriors had strong coaching and showed unity at important moments this past season. Those two attributes were tje keys to success.
Delaware Valley finished with a 13-7 overall record and they were PIAA District 2 AAA Champions.
“Our most impressive contests was a home victory 16-8 (over Dallas),” Delaware Valley head coach Jeff Krasulski said. “That was early in season and we were one step ahead of them the entire game. We knew how to exploit their defense and forced them out of what they wanted to do. Our District Championship game over Freedom, 14-4, was about as dominate a team victory we had this season. Our victory of Minisink Valley was huge as only our second victory over them in the past 10 seasons.
In addition to the captains — Anton Mackey, Dan Matarazzo and Jimmy Quinn — Chris Cuccio and Todd Stager were the leaders of the team's defense, Krasulski said.
“Chris and Todd were vocal in how our defense needed to perform," said the coach. "Seth Croll, sophomore defensemen, was heard consistently communicating to his teammates what was going on in the game as well as always being caught doing the right thing. Seth would consistently put the team before himself. As the lone returning attack man from last year Josh Balcarcel took more ownership of our offense.”
Krasulski said Balcarcel was among the student-athletes who impressed the most with his improvements throughout the spring.
“Not really a surprise, but our attack unit of Balcarcel, Jackson Melnick, and Shane Roche had amazing seasons as sophomores,” Krasulski said. “All recorded over 40 goals apiece. Jackson and Shane were new starters this season and stepped in performed beyond their years. We had three First Team All-League performers (Balcarcel , Mackey and Cuccio), Jackson Melnick and Dan Matarazzo were Honorable Mention.”
Many positive memories were built this year for the team — memories that can be built upon in 2019.
“We had more letter winners who were sophomores than junior and seniors combined,” Krasulski said. “Our seniors are leaving great holes for us to fill, but we had a lot of guys get valuable playing experience. We only have two returning seniors on our roster, so we will be the youngest team in the league next year, but we have talent and skill across every position group. Some of these guys were thrown into the fire early in their career, and now that they have some experience, they should be able to come in next year and continue to build off of that.
“We graduate our starters at midfield. Our top six midfielders from this season are gone. We have a large group of underclassman that will be competing for those roles next season. It will be an exciting off-season to see who will put the work in to earn the right to be on the field.”