The Voorhees boys lacrosse team had to deal with more than the usual set of ups and downs that come with a high-level lacrosse game to reach the final of the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex tournament.
The Vikings’ H/W/S semifinal at Warren Hills was initially scheduled to take place 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and, after about an hour delay due to storms in the area, they jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the second-seeded Blue Streaks.
Voorhees’ momentum was halted, though, with 3:44 left in the first quarter when another delay led to the game being pushed back to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Warren Hills cut the deficit to 3-2 when the game resumed with one goal each in the first and second, but the Vikings scored in bunches in the second half to run away with an 11-3 win Wednesday afternoon.
Voorhees will face top-seeded Pope John, which beat Sparta 8-6 in the other semifinal Tuesday, in the H/W/S final 11:00 a.m. Saturday at Lenape Valley. It’s the Vikings’ second-ever trip to the H/W/S final; their first appearance was in 2012 when they lost to Hunterdon Central.”
“That was a loaded team,” Voorhees coach Nick Perkalis, a 2010 Voorhees grad, said of the last Vikings’ team to reach the H/W/S final. “For this team to get back there, we had to beat the best to be there and we’ve done that… Most of these guys were starters as freshman, now they’re seniors. I’ve worked with them since they were in fourth or fifth grade, since I started coaching here. It’s the fruits of a lot of labor.”
“That’s what you play for, the big games,” Voorhees senior Fin Bruton said. “You wanna play in the big game to win it, we’re not just gonna be there to be there.”
Junior Rylan Benitez got the Vikings going in the second half when his shot bounced over Warren Hills senior goalie Dylan Duerring’s left shoulder and in to extend their lead to 4-2 3:09 into the third quarter. Just eight seconds later, junior Josh Hufford scored after a series of quick passes off the ensuing faceoff.
“Once the shots started dropping, it was all downhill from there,” Hufford said. “We knew right from yesterday, we were going to win the game, it was just a matter of time.”
Senior midfielder Jackson Trevaskiss drove past a defender before he dished an assist across cage to fellow senior middie Robert Bryan, who scored to make it 6-2 with 2:03 left in the third. Connor Goodwin, another senior midfielder, scooped up a ground ball close to the cage 55 seconds later.
“We just rode the wave,” Goodwin said. “When we put one in, we just keep on coming, peppering the goalie.”
Voorhees led by five heading into the fourth and Bruton extended its lead to six with a high-to-low finish 2:22 into the final quarter. Less than a minute later, Goodwin scored his second of the game and 17 seconds after that, assisted Bruton who completed his hat trick.
Bruton led the Vikings with four goals, the last of which he scored from a tight angle to Duerring’s right halfway through the fourth.
Warren Hills senior Brock Duerring capped the scoring with a goal in the final minute.
Voorhees’ patience on offense, limited turnovers, and domination of possession time gave the Blue Streaks limited opportunities to mount a comeback.
When Warren Hills had the ball, the Vikings’ defense “played as a unit,” according to Perkalis, and gave up three goals or less for the fifth time this season.
“We located who their best guys were and we made sure we limited how many times they touched the ball,” Goodwin said.
“We just trusted the game plan,” senior defender Jake Vernieri said. “We put a lot of preparation into this week knowing our matchups. Every day, coming prepared, wanting to run through a wall for our boys. We had each others’ backs every play.”
Like Vernieri, Perkalis also credited defensive coordinator Justin Friedel, who had to restructure his schedule Wednesday to make it to the game following the postponement.
“It’s a lot but you always face adversity in games,” Bruton said of the game being played on two separate days. Our coach always says, ‘It’s a game of runs.’ Our defense kept us in it.”
The lighting indicator goes off for the third time shortly before the end of the firs quarter as Warren Hills and Voorhees compete during the HWS boys lacrosse tournament on May 6, 2025. The game was postponed after this. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleyl
Hufford (off a bounce-shot with 2:38 left in the first quarter), Trekvass, and Bruton (off an assist from senior Shayaan McFarlin) scored for Voorhees on Tuesday.
“You go from an emotional high of being up three the day before and then you gotta go home. I couldn’t sleep all night, I’m sure they (Voorhees’ players) were in the same boat then you gotta go through a whole day at school,” Perkalis said. “What we did as a team was we basically said, ‘Nothing changes.’ We wore suits to school on Tuesday, did the same thing Wednesday. Guys wore the same things for warmups, we walked out at the same exact time just to generate that same focus and energy that we had yesterday and keep our minds on the task at hand.”
The Vikings went into Tuesday, and then Wednesday, motivated by a one-goal loss to Warren Hills back on April 3.
“Since we lost (to Warren Hills) Week 3, we’ve been pissed off,” Hufford said. “We’ve wanted our get back, we wanted our opportunity. It doesn’t matter whether it rains, thunders, a week later; we were ready to go again. We’re always gonna play hungry.”
Voorhees will need that same intensity against Pope John (13-1), which beat the Vikings 12-3 in the H/W/S semis last year.
“We have a big group of seniors, we’ve been together for a long time,” Vernieri said. “We want this bad.”
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Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com.