Fisher-Price Little People Mickey and Friends toy recalled. How to tell if yours is safe
SPORTS

Boys lacrosse: Tovey lifts St. Joseph to GMC Division title

Lauren Knego
@laurenknego

METUCHEN - The St. Joseph lacrosse team is the GMC Division champion, thanks to Jimmy Tovey.

Tovey scored the game-winning goal on an assist from Brett Krause with 1:22 left in the game to lead St. Joseph over rival Monroe 9-8 on Thursday. The win put the Falcons at 9-1 for the season and brought the GMC Division title back to St. Joseph for the first time since 2012.

"Monroe is our biggest rival in this division so this is definitely a big confidence booster and it's just a great win for us and it'll give us a lot of momentum for the rest of the season," Tovey said. "This is not it, this is definitely the start of something and we're going to keep building. This is the biggest test of the season so we saw all the guys and what they're made of today, we all really battled today and it showed and it's going to carry us into playoff season."

Monroe (8-2) took an 8-7 lead with 5:36 remaining on Christian Giannola's second goal of the day. Thirty seconds later Max Bischoff scored on an assist from John Henry Riccardi to tie the game 8-8.

St. Joseph celebrates its win over Monroe on Thursday.

After Tovey scored, Bryan Boczon won the faceoff for St. Joseph, but Monroe caused a turnover with under a minute left. The Falcons brought it downfield where St. Joseph caused a turnover of its own and ran out the clock for the 9-8 final.

"They did a good job, they hustled the whole game," Tovey said of the defense. "Ryan Hultberg had an amazing day, played a great game, we talked in the huddle and we just adjusted to what they were doing on offense and we just kept at it the whole game."

The score was tied 1-1 after the first quarter, which set the tone for the rest of the game. Both teams went back and forth, with the largest lead a 6-4 St. Joseph advantage with 6:12 left in the third quarter.

But it wasn't a lead for long. Nine seconds later Sean Gillies scored to pull Monroe within one, 6-5, and less than a minute later Gillies found Mike Tepedino, who scored to tie the game 6-6.

St. Joseph opened the fourth quarter on a goal from Tovey, who finished with a hat trick, to put the Falcons ahead 7-6, but Monroe again tied it up on a goal from Kyle Tepe for a 7-7 game with 8:05 remaining.

Monroe started the game taking shot after shot at St. Joseph goalie Ryan Hultberg, who allowed only three goals in the first half and made 13 saves. He finished with 20 total.

"It's kind of just a goalie thing, if you see the first shot, the first shot got off my shoulder, so I saw the first shot and once you get it your confidence builds up a little bit and you just more and more coming in, it was a good start for me," Hultberg said. "I think the (defense) played well, they let me see some good shots that I could save, they let me work my way instead of having shots right in front of the crease, one on none really, so the defense helped me out a lot."

Pete Jarosiewicz won 12-of-21 faceoffs for Monroe, and goalie Joey Massoni recorded his 500th career save with 1:15 remaining in the first half. He finished with 11 saves.

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego

St. Joseph 9. Monroe 8

GOALS: (SJ) Tovey 3, Day 2, Krause 2, Klurman, Bischoff; (M) Anderson 2, Giannola 2, Jarosiewicz, Gillies, Tepedino, Tepe; ASSISTS: (SJ) Bischoff, Tovey, Day, Riccardi, Krause; (M) Gillies 2, Parente 2, Giannola; SAVES: (SJ) Hultberg 20; (M) Massoni 11.