East Brunswick boys lacrosse looking to take next step

After suffering through a number of losing campaigns in recent years, the East Brunswick High School boys lacrosse team took a big step forward last season and is looking to start its climb through the Greater Middlesex Conference.

Last season, the Bears finished 11-8, its first winning season since 2010 despite starting six sophomores and a freshman after graduating 13 seniors in 2015. The Bears earned the No. 4 seed in the GMC Tournament and defeated fifth-seeded South Brunswick in overtime to win their first tournament game in recent memory.

"It’s really early, our focus is not to get too excited, we had a lot of success last year and we’re hoping it rolls over to our training," said coach Rory Murray, who is entering his sixth season with the team. "We’re focused on the next goal and the next groundball and we’re going to take the season one game at a time. The opportunities are out there but we need to do our job to take advantage of what we have."

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East Brunswick brings back seven starters from last season, but lost its goalie, Omar Elshalakany, who is playing football at Montclair State University, as well as Marymount freshman Mike Burns, who scored 41 goals last season.

Last season's leading scorer Tommy Bahmer, who finished with 42 goals and 40 assists, returns to lead the attack along with senior Michael Thomas. Midfielders Timmy Smith (14 goals, 21 assists), junior Jack Solimini (11 goals, four assists) and sophomore Sean Kelliher (34 goals, 14 assists) are also back.

Tommy Gudzak, who played defense last year as a freshman will move to attack, and sophomore Christian Perrine is back on faceoffs. A number of defensemen also return, including sophomores Nick Randzio and Stephen Berman, junior Robert Duncan and senior Jake Mecca.

The Bears welcome two goalies, sophomore Brian McDonald and junior Christian Tarnofsky, and have a wealth of sophomore midfielders, long stick midfielders and attack players, joining the team.

"We're bringing back the core of the team, we’re going to be young again but the kids worked hard and do a lot of good things," Murray said. "I think that last year was a great success for us, it was our first winning season in a while but we don’t want to get complacent, we really want to strive to continue to improve the program and make the next step as far as developing us into a perennially competitive team within the conference and the state."

Despite the team being young again this season, the Bears are looking forward to building on last season as a number of starters gained valuable experience last year. The goals will be to keep improving and staying focused in order to win games.

"The conference championship is always out there, with the talent we have coming back it’s not outside of our reach, but we’re focused on what’s in front of us and taking it step by step," Murray said.

East Brunswick opens the season on Wednesday at home against Hightstown, then will face division teams Old Bridge on Saturday and South Brunswick in a GMCT rematch on April 4.

"We hope to get back up there and take another crack at the tournament," Murray said. "The other coaches in the conference they do a good job. Old Bridge does a great job with those kids year in and year out, they work so hard all the time, and South Brunswick does a great job. The conference as a whole has gotten so much more competitive, the coaches and players do a great job just trying to keep up and keep pushing the envelope."

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