Some games are more crucial than others. Last January, when South played North in its home gym, the Pirates were just looking to build a respectable record after losing their first three games. The Knights — led by the CVC’s top scorer Brian Sufalko — started the season on a torrid pace and were on their way to the NJSIAA playoffs. But although Sufalko scored 20, South came away with an exciting 52-49 victory in front of an overflow crowd.
The game proved to be a backbreaker and a season-maker, propelling the Pirates to a 12-10 record and a visit to the state playoffs. It was also the beginning of the Knights crumble to a 9-14 finish.##M:[more]##
But this season the two squads have lost 14 of last season’s top players to graduation. By necessity head coaches Eric Mooney and Eric Becker are in rebuilding mode and hoping for the best. Both teams open the season with home games on Friday, December 17, at 7 p.m. South will face Ewing and North will battle a tough Steinert team. How well the two teams stack up against one another will be on display when North hosts South on Tuesday, January 11, and again in the regular season finale on Thursday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m. at South.
South Boys
Basketball is the only sport I play,” says Pirates guard Josh Cornfeld, a senior. “I’ve played for the last seven seasons and I like the competition, it gets really intense.”
For Cornfeld, in his seventh season playing basketball, it has been an exciting ride to see the Pirates move toward respectability and beyond. Three years ago the team failed to win a single game all season under former coach Jay Thompson. They followed that up with a record of 7-15 in 2002. Just how good they can be this year is anybody’s guess.
Last season, the first under Mooney, the Pirates catapulted themselves into a winning season. “Last year, I think a lot of teams underrated us,” says Cornfeld. “This year it will be more difficult because last year we took some teams by surprise.”
Finishing with a winning record was a goal early on last season, but South was also impressive in its two tournament appearances. Besides making the state playoffs in 2003 (losing to Trenton, 70-51), the Pirates also advanced as far as the quarterfinal round in the Mercer County Tournament, beating Hamilton, 68-52, in the opener before losing to top seeded Notre Dame, 49-31.
But improving on last season’s heroics will be difficult. Mooney is faced with a tough task in replacing last year’s standouts Uche Ndubizu and Randy McKnight as well as six other top players who graduated last June. With a host of players without varsity experience, South will look for support from senior forward Grant MacQueen, who at 6-feet-4, has the potential to be one of the CVC’s top scorers, as well as 6-feet-5 center Matt Howell, a senior. Senior Neil Kapil, a guard, who serves as co-captain along with MacQueen and Howell, will be looking to be one of South’s prime play makers.
Also returning is guard Robert Engel. Among the underclassmen from last season’s junior varsity squad who have an opportunity to contribute will be Chris Wesson, Eric Voigtsberger, Ryan Smart, Chris Ruiz, Colin Dampier, and Brian Soltau.
The 5-feet-7, 150-pound Cornfeld says that if the Pirates don’t matchup to last season’s heroics, it won’t be due to lack of conditioning. “Last season coach made up a tough conditioning program,” he says. “It wasn’t something you had to do, but most of us did it five or six times a week.” The team also competed in summer leagues games throughout Mercer County.
A resident of West Windsor, Cornfeld’s mother works at Bristol Myers Squibb and his father is employed at Hoffman-LaRoche. He has a younger brother, 15, who plays tennis, and a younger sister, 10. Cornfeld, who hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania next year, is undecided whether he will pursue basketball at the college level. “It really all depends on how well it goes this season,” he says.
Mooney, who teaches American Studies at High School South and served as head coach at South Hunterdon High School before coming to South in 2003, stresses hard work and a thorough knowledge of the basic skills of the game, such as knowing how to set up a screen and how to attack different zones. His overall coaching philosophy of “just work from the basics and the rest is gravy” has taken the team further than expected in one season. This season Mooney has issued a challenge to his seniors. “Coach says that he has never failed to make the states with a senior class,” says Cornfeld. “We definitely don’t want to be the first.” South will play its opening game at home against Ewing on Friday, December 17, at 7 p.m. It then travels to Life Center Academy on Monday, December 20, and plays at Princeton on Wednesday, December 22, at 6 p.m.
North’s Prospects
Last year High School North boys basketball had an all conference player in senior Brian Sufalko. But that team finished with a 9-14 record. This year, without a clear point scorer, head coach Eric Becker believes he has a team that can make the state playoffs.
“We won’t have a player who will score 20 points night in and night out,” he says. “These are different guys who play a different kind of role on the team. They are very unselfish. Anyone on this team can score 20 points, but it is a team with more balance.”
Last year’s Knights could be summed up as a tale of two seasons. They started the season winning four of its first five games and winning the Michael Tucker Holiday Tournament. Then the losing started. The cruncher was losing to High School South last January as North had beaten the Pirates three straight seasons.
But even before that epic showdown, North had lost three out of four games. It seemed that even though Sufalko continued to score at his regular rate of 20 points per game, not enough of his teammates were adding their own buckets.
Still, Sufalko’s statistics are impressive. He finished his WW-P career as the Knights’ first 1,”000 point scorer, averaged 19.5 points-per-game last season. He led the CVC his senior season with 432 points and also had the season’s top scoring game against Hamilton, with 41 points. He had been a four-year varsity player and a starter for three years. Becker will need to find a way to replace last year’s starters Mike Pilgrim, Gregg Sauber, Chris Ward, as well as Mike Meirowitz and Derrick Servon.
The quick-footed Jeff Torralba, fresh from a banner season as North’s quarterback, will be the point guard and is an able playmaker who can score the key basket and direct the attack. The Knights will also try to rebuild with veterans from last seasons squad, including senior guards Vasant Natanajan, Barry Kay, and Abhi Donithreddy and returning juniors Conor Hayes and John Byrnes. Senior center Kevin Hennessey will contribute both offensively and on defense. Sean McNulty, a sophomore, also saw varsity time last season.
Knights varsity newcomers include sophomore Alex Crawford, juniors Michael DeGoria, Marcus Ruggiero, and LeSean Thomas, and senior Rich DiLouie.
Becker, a guidance counselor at High School North, is the only head coach the Knights have ever had. After winning just three games in its initial season, North has won nine in 2000. The Knights made it to the state playoffs in 2002 with a 15-10 record, winning a game and making it into the state semifinal round.
Whether last season’s step backwards, especially in a season that started out with such promise, was an anomaly or a trend remains to be seen. But already this year in preseason scrimmages against Montgomery, Northern Burlington and Voorhees, Becker likes what he sees. “We are a young team with a mixture of ages and that will be a factor,” he says. “But we play good team basketball and all players on the court are involved. Someone needs to step up to the challenge. How well we play on defense and in rebounding will be key.”
But while Becker feels that his team has the potential to improve overall, competing in the CVC this year will not be easy. “The entire CVC is highly competitive this year,” he says. “Hamilton, Hopewell Valley, and Notre Dame all look like they will be very strong this season.”
The Knights prospects will be tested early when they play Steinert at home on Friday December 17, at 7 p.m. “Steinert is always good,” says Becker. “They had a great year last year, but they lost some of their starters to graduation. But they have a way of being successful every year.”
North then plays road games against Howell on Monday, December 20, and Trenton on Tuesday, December 21, at 7 p.m.
Hockey Update
High School South was widely expected to be an also-ran this year, with top seniors graduating in 2004, including standout goalie Jeff Katz. But this year the Pirates have started out winning their first five games.
After defeating Princeton on opening night, 6-4, the Pirates have dominated their next four opponents: Nottingham, 7-2, on December 6; Lawrence, 8-3, on December 8; and Hamilton, 11-1, on December 13; and a shutout of Ewing, 5-0, on December 15.
Forward Jeff Katz, a junior (no relation to last season’s senior goalie), has an early season scoring touch, along with seniors Justin Berger and Benjie Fan. Goalie duties have been split by junior Chris Kazi and freshman Dan Katz (brother of last season’s goalie).
High School North hockey is trying to rebound with a brand new head coach after last season’s disappointing 7-11-3 season. Bob Weiss takes over for Tim Grable, who left after four seasons to coach at Manasquan. Although he is new to West Windsor-Plainsboro, Weiss has had 13 years of coaching experience from the pee-wee league level to high school. He most recently served as head coach at Nottingham High School from 1997 to 2002.
Whether he can bring the Knights back to their former glory — reaching the state quarterfinals in 2002 — is an open question. North has had a rocky start to the season, dropping games to Steinert and Notre Dame, and then beating Nottingham, 8-3, on December 8. North is lead by senior captains Rob Mihalyi, Eric Hansell, and Nicole Forant. Sophomores Ryan Worrall and Adam Natoli have provided the goaltending.
People in Sports
Killian Brakel, a 7th grade student at Community Middle School, is an alpine ski racer at Pico Mountain, Vermont. Last year Brakel won the J4 Vermont State Championship in Slalom. This year he moves up to J3 and was named to the Vermont Alpine Race Association State Team in October.
