'Another banner season for the Warriors'

By Josh Lashley
MILFORD — The true fan of athletics loves seeing a team overcome adversity in their first few games, and live up its promise by seasons end.
This past spring, the Delaware Valley High School boys lacrosse program got off to a slow start but recovered, so that they can look back at the season with pride.
“Our victory over Minisink was monumental for us as it was our first time beating them in playing them over an eight-year span,” Delaware Valley head coach Jeff Krasulski said. “We entered the game 0-3 and were desperate for a win. By that time we found our identity as a team and some of our younger players knew what their roles were and how to step up for us. Our loss to Springfield in States, 10-5, was a step forward for our program. Springfield is an elite team from Philly suburbs."
The Warriors had a strong overall record of 15-5 and they were Wyoming Valley Conference champions with a mark of 9-0. They were Conference champions for the fourth straight year and District champs for the fifth time in six years,
“Our captains, seniors Neil Roche, PJ Matarazzo, and Nick Pampalone all did a great job leading in their own ways,” Krasulski said. “Junior Trevor Martin and senior Aaron Castillo emerged as leaders for the team. Trevor was a workhorse for us, doing all the little things that help us win but won't show up in the box score. Trev plays both offense and defense as a midfielder and is one of our toughest players on the team. Aaron emerged as a shutdown defender and put a lot of work in to bring the defensive unit to form.”
Beyond the leaders on the roster, several other student-athletes stepped to the forefront for the Warriors this year.
“Face-off man and midfielder Anton Mackey had tremendous growth throughout the season,” Krasulski said. “Anton went on to become the best face off man in our league and have great battles in our out of league contests. He also developed confidence on the offensive end of the field had many key goals during the second half of the season. Rhett Padgett, midfielder, has always shown great offensive potential, but as the season went on he was clearly becoming one of the biggest threats in the league. In our District Championship game he scored three of our four goals in a 4-3 win and in the State game he had three of our five goals.
“Sophomore long stick midfielder Ryan Obiso emerged as a lock down defender as he continued to improve in learning the game and just using his athleticism to dominate opponents and sophomore Dan Matarazzo emerged as an offensive threat, becoming one of our primary dodgers and a good assist man.”
Look for more excitement from the Warriors throughout the 2017 season.
“We graduate 10 seniors, which has been a constant theme the past four to five seasons,” Krasulski said. “We try to reload rather than rebuild. We had a lot of sophomores get valuable playing time but only return three of 10 starters. Our players will continue to work and grow in the offseason as many play lacrosse for local club travel teams. We have a good youth program that will be sending us 10-12 freshmen next year, some of which have been playing lacrosse for a long time.”