Lacrosse: Bischoff, Day helping to lead St. Joseph (Met.)

After losing a number of seniors to graduation last year, the St. Joseph (Met.) lacrosse team has had its ups and downs this season. But two bright spots for the Falcons have been seniors Max Bischoff and Timothy Day.

Bischoff and Day recently reached major milestones in their careers, as the Falcons have steadily improved since the start of the season. So far, Bischoff has achieved his 100th career goal, 200th point and 100th assist. Day recorded his 100th assist, and for his career has 84 goals and 188 points.

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"For us the last two seasons, Max has been our go-to player, we’ve run the offense through him," St. Joseph coach Andrew Pinto said. "The last two years with his skill set and the way he sees the field, he’s been able to benefit from it. Last year with our talent, he was able to use his full skill set, this year, goals and assists are coming harder for him, with all the losses to graduation everyone knows Max is going to get the ball, but he’s been able to handle that though.

"While Max is more the scorer, Timmy is the one who facilitates everyone. Like Max he has a great sense, he’s a first-pass type of person, he’s always headed up field, looking to move the ball into the correct scorer’s hands. With him he’s more the silent leader, he leads by example and focuses on what we’re trying to do and leads the group pretty well."

Bischoff, who currently has 21 goals and 31 assists, scored his 100th career goal in an 11-6 loss to Pope John on April 22. He recorded his 200th career point with a two goal, four assist performance in a 15-2 victory over J.P. Stevens on April 27. On Saturday, he recorded his 100th career assist with one goal and five assists in a 18-1 victory over Union Catholic/Wardlaw-Hartridge.

"It’s a pretty good feeling, as much as I don’t like to get wrapped up in stats, it feels pretty good but I don’t think I would have hit these milestones without the help of my teammates," said Bischoff, who is attending Indiana University next year. "It’s a good feeling but I like to look at is as a team aspect, whatever it takes to help the team win is good for me."

Day, who will be playing lacrosse at Bentley College next year, recorded his 100th career assist with a hat trick and four assists against Bishop Ahr on April 25. He now has 29 goals, 19 assists and 48 points for the season.

"It’s really exciting, going into high school I never thought I would get close to 100 assists or 100 goals, I’m always giving assists more than scoring goals and it’s exciting to achieve that in high school," Day said. "I think it says a lot more about the coaching staff that put in me that position, I started as a sophomore and they did a very good job of turning me into a better player and I’ve evolved over the years and stepped up and became a much better player than I thought I would be."

For Bischoff, Day and the rest of the Falcons, their belief is that stats are great and all, but it's about the team and getting wins. St. Joseph started off the season going 3-3, but since then, the Falcons (7-4) have gone 4-1 in their last five games.

"We lost a lot of seniors last year, it’s been rough because we have a lot of midfielders injured," Day said. "But I think we’re coming together and starting to turn it around and I think we’ll have a good season for the rest of the year."

With two more regular season games on the schedule, the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament set to begin on May 8 and the state tournament looming, St. Joseph is just focused on winning games.

"As far as stats (my hard work) has paid off reaching these milestones," Bischoff said. "But last year we didn’t win the GMC, which kind of deflates the good feeling of breaking milestones. Hopefully this year we actually win the championship and if we can do that it will mean a lot more."

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