Highland lacrosse falls to Cornwall

By RICK REMSNYDER
Posted 4/13/22

It was a triumphant return to Jake Ward’s old stomping grounds Friday afternoon as he scored six goals to lead Cornwall High to a thrilling 9-8 victory over Highland’s lacrosse …

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Highland lacrosse falls to Cornwall

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It was a triumphant return to Jake Ward’s old stomping grounds Friday afternoon as he scored six goals to lead Cornwall High to a thrilling 9-8 victory over Highland’s lacrosse team.

The game was played at Dennis Burkett Field in Marlboro where Ward played football for the Iron Dukes. He also played lacrosse since the eighth grade for Highland coach Tom Schlappich, whose team is allowed to have Marlboro players on its roster since the Iron Dukes don’t field a lacrosse team.

The Huskies play some of their home games on Marlboro’s artificial turf field, which came in handy Friday since most other grass fields in the area were unplayable due to torrential rains.

Ward transferred to Cornwall for his senior year where he played football for the Dragons. His father Rich, who led Marlboro’s football team to six Section 9 Class B titles in eight years, is the defensive coordinator for Cornwall.

After Cornwall withstood a furious second-half rally to post the non-league win over the Huskies (1-2), Ward said he was happy to return to Marlboro and get the win in front of family and friends that included his father.

“It was great,” Ward said. “I love this place. I’ve been here since I’ve been 5 years old. It’s great to come back and get the W. All those guys (Highland players) are my brothers, but I have a lot of new brothers (at Cornwall) and it was great to get the win with them.”

Ward wasted little time getting Cornwall (1-1) on the scoreboard by finding the net on a short shot that beat

Huskies goalie Landon Zehr for a 1-0 lead less than a minute into the contest.

Ward gave the Dragons a 2-0 lead with another goal with 4:58 left in the first quarter.

Dean Klotz cut the deficit to 2-1 by circling around the goal and scoring from about 10 yards out with 3:54 remaining in the first quarter.

With Highland’s Osei Adoma serving a penalty for slashing, Cornwall’s Hayden Berkowitz fired a one-hop bullet into the net for a 3-1 lead with 1:04 remaining in the first quarter.

Ward converted a nice feed from AJ Dinnocenzio with just 6.9 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 4-1 heading into the second quarter.

Cornwall’s Mikey Novotny and Ward scored goals in the second quarter to build the Dragons’ lead to 6-1 at the half.

But things got very interesting in the second half as the Huskies outscored Cornwall 4-2 in the third quarter to pull to within 8-5 heading into the final quarter.

When AJ Palmer netted the second of his two goals in the fourth quarter, the Huskies had crawled back to within 8-7 with 2:35 remaining.

Cornwall finally put it away when Logan Conforti broke loose and found the back of the net for a 9-7 advantage with 1:15 to go.

Frankie Guidi scored for Highland with less than a second left to make it 9-8.

Schlappich said Ward first attended one of his lacrosse camps when he was in the fifth grade.

“Jake’s a very talented kid and he did a heckuva job for Cornwall today,” he said.

Schlappich praised his team for its spirited comeback.

“I don’t like losing, but the way our kids fought and scrapped and executed, we were right there against a very good team,” he said. “We knew if we could get the ball to our offense, we could make some plays. We were able to capitalize on some plays and get some guys open in the second half.”

Schlappich said Cornwall is part of a challenging non-league schedule.

“This will just make us better,” he said. “Iron sharpens iron. I think it will make us stronger down the stretch.”

Klotz led the Huskies with four goals and Palmer added three.

Zehr had eight saves for Highland. John Westbrook had nine saves for the winners.

Highland traveled to Middletown for a non-league match on Monday.