Ocean Township (New Jersey) senior, Joey Appio, surpassed 300 career points against Red Bank Catholic (New Jersey) on May 2 with a five assist, two goal performance. Also today, St. Margaret’s Episcopal (San Juan Capistrano, California) senior Samuel Harnisch surpasses 300 career points (video) and more.
While LaxRecords.com was started as a place to house the history of boys’ high school lacrosse, there are a lot of performances that do not make the lists. But those performances deserved to be highlighted.
Each Monday, I’ll highlight players, teams, coaches and games that caught my attention.
Want to alert me to a story I missed? Reach out to me via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or just good ‘ol email at mloveday@laxrecords.com.
Favorite, Which Favorite?
Which team will win the Colorado state championship this season? If the regular season is any indication, it is impossible to predict. The Top 4 teams, according to LaxPower.com have all played against each other this season, but trying to gauge which team has the advantage as the playoffs start can cause a headache.
Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village, Colorado) opened the year as the defending champion and the No. 1 team in the state. A 6-5 overtime win against Regis Jesuit (Aurora, Colorado) on April 14, that was a rematch of the 2015 championship game, kept the Bruins into the No. 1 spot.
Five days later, Mountain Vista (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) defeated Cherry Creek 14-8 to move the Golden Eagles into the No. 1 spot.
Then the Golden Eagles lost, 7-5, to Regis Jesuit on April 2 and then Arapahoe (Centennial, Colorado) defeated Cherry Creek at home for the first time since 2009 on April 27. The win was the Warriors eighth straight win, a streak they extended to 10 games on May 3. Keenan Moffatt scored four goals in the win over Cherry Creek.
Then, to cap the regular season, Mountain Vista defeated Arapahoe 14-11 on May 6. As of last week’s 3d Rising State Rankings, Regis Jesuit holds the No. 1 spot with Mountain Vista, Arapahoe and Cherry Creek coming in 2-4 respectively.
The CHSAA added the Class 5A brackets today and Regis Jesuit earned the No. 1 seed and plays Legend (Parker, Colorado) on May 11. Mountain Vista plays Denver East (Denver) as the No. 2 seed. Arapahoe plays Kent Denver (Englewood, Colorado) as the No. 3 and Cherry Creek plays Chaparral (Parker, Colorado) as the No. 4 seed.
2016 CHSAA Boys Lacrosse Championships Class 5A
Both Arapahoe and Mountain Vista are led by underclassmen. Colin Munro leads Mountain Vista with 48 goals and sophomore Jake Govett is third with 29 goals. Arapahoe’s leading scorer is senior Keenan Moffatt who has 33 goals, but the next five top goal scorers are either juniors or sophomores.
Regis Jesuit has the senior leadership and experience. Their top five leading scorers are all seniors and the offense is balanced with those players accounting for 87 of the team’s 171 goals this season. Cole Boland and Alec Barnes lead the team with 20 goals each.
Best Of All Time
Joey Appio
Ocean Township (New Jersey) senior, Joey Appio, had a milestone week last week and is on the verge of another one.
The Florida Southern commit surpassed 300 career points against Red Bank Catholic (New Jersey) on May 2 with a five assist, two goal performance.
Now, with another seven assists against Brick Memorial (New Jersey) on Saturday, Appio now has 211 career assists, which is six away from the best known New Jersey record. Former Glen Ridge (New Jersey) player, Alex Lopes, is the current leader with 217 career assists from 2002 to 2005.
His 309 career points puts him in the Top 15 all-time of all known New Jersey boys’ lacrosse players.
Career Year
Capital City United (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) junior JP Morris surpassed 200 career points this season. The uncommitted midfielder has 145 career goals and 69 career assists to finish his junior year with 214 career points.
California Playoff Run
St. Margaret’s Episcopal (San Juan Capistrano, California) seniors Samuel Harnisch and Nick Shanks each totaled eight points in a first round 16-7 playoff win against Anaheim Servite (Anaheim, California) on May 3.
Harnisch scored six goals and two assists, while Shanks had four goals and four assists.
Harnisch, a Denver commit, added another seven points in a second round win over San Clemente (California) on May 5. With the totals, Harnisch reached 300 career points and helped his team to the Orange County semifinals on Saturday where they defeated Foothill-Santa Ana (Santa Ana, California) 11-8. He added a goal and an assist in that win to give him 302 career points with 230 career goals.
Harnisch becomes the fifth known player in California boys’ lacrosse history to surpass 300 career points. He joins current Coronado (Coronado, California) senior Anthony DeMaio. Also in the 300 point club in California are current Denver attackman, Nate Marano (Foothill-Santa Ana, 2012 – 2015), Michael Tagliaferri (San Ramon Valley, 2009 – 2012) and Chris Summers (Westview, 2010 – 2013).
The Tartans semifinal win set up a meeting against Corona del Mar (Newport Beach, California) in the Orange County CIF Final on Wednesday. St. Margaret’s won the Orange County title 14-9 over JSerra Catholic (San Juan Capistrano, California) last season.
950 and Counting
Jack Rusbuldt
Collegiate (Richmond, Va.) senior Jack Rusbuldt surpassed 950 career saves last week and is on the verge of becoming just the 10th known player to reach 1,000.
The Penn State commit has 205 saves this season and the Cougars have two games remaining on their regular season schedule and at least one game in the VISAA tournament.
Rusbuldt already has the school record for career saves, passing Bud Petit who had 833 career saves from 2000 to 2003. As a freshman, Rusbuldt made 216 saves and followed that up with a 272 save season as a sophomore. He made 262 last season, helping the Cougars to a 22-1 record.
Through May 6, Rusbuldt has 961 saves.