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Luke Hublitz still remembers how he felt last May when Lawrenceville‘s Mason Vance buried the game-winning goal in overtime to beat Hublitz and his Brunswick team in the Prep Nationals championship game. He also remembers what he thought afterward. Neither was ideal.
“Losing to them twice, both on our home field, was horrible,” the Eclipse 2024, Brunswick senior defenseman and Virginia signee, said. “Then the ’23 class was probably the best class Brunswick’s ever had, and I’m just thinking, ‘how are we going to beat (the Big Red) this year?”
A tall task, indeed, considering the fact that the win cemented Lawrenceville’s status as the No. 1 team in the country. The Big Red reloaded, too, and came into Wednesday’s showdown undefeated with an army of impressive wins to their win.
Brunswick came out of it with the title as No. 1 team in the country. Senior Colgate signee Casey Quinson‘s fourth goal of the game off of a fast restart from Sean Ryan gave the Bruins a 13-12 win over the Big Red.
Quinson and five-star Syracuse signee Payton Anderson (Prime Time) posted matching four-goal, one-assist stat lines to fuel the Brunswick offense. Goalie Tucker Williams (Brown) made 19 saves.
“We were laser-focused the whole week of practice heading into the game,” Anderson said. “We knew the pressure that they had because we’ve had the same target on our back. Our guys just played our game, never lost composure throughout the whole game and found a way to win.”
Bruins on Top
Brunswick earns the top spot in the first NLF High School Rankings of the season. The Bruins are 6-0 with wins over five teams in the top 25. Top-ranked junior faceoff midfielder Aidan Diaz-Matos (Prime Time / Notre Dame) has been lights-out at the faceoff stripe for the Bruins. The offense has continually gotten better, and the defense, led by Hublitz, is your traditionally deep Brunswick group of poles.
“It’s been so fun, especially knowing that the defense was going to be the strength of the team going into the season,” Hublitz said. “The offense is hitting their stride now, too. We have a really high standard as a defense, and it’s been me, (four-star junior) Robert Plath (Prime Time / Georgetown), (senior) Carter Hall (Eclipse / Boston University), (junior) John Buttafuoco (Prime Time) and then Tucker Spiess (Princeton) at LSM. Tucker Williams has been standing on his head in goal.”
Expectations are always high at Brunswick, so there’s nothing new to that. The Bruins are No. 1 right now, but they know that it brings a ton of attention. It’s something for which Anderson says they’re ready.
“We’re still going to grind. We know it’s not going to be a cakewalk, and we’re going to get everybody’s best game and we know that,” Anderson said.
NLF High School Rankings
1. Brunswick (Conn.)
2. Haverford School (Pa.)
The Fords rekindle their rivalry with No. 4 Malvern Prep on Tuesday. They’re coming off a 12-5 win over Springside Chestnut Hill, a team tabbed by many as the Inter-Ac’s third-best squad. Junior Evan Large (Air Force) had three goals and two assists to lead the offense. Senior Aydan DiRocco (Navy) supplied three assists to go with a goal. Senior Brody Murphy (Richmond), as steady as it gets in the cage, was superb with 14 saves. The Fords’ balanced offense runs into a deep Friars defense. Will five-star senior Ben McCarthy (Duke) once again be the deciding factor for Haverford?
3. Lawrenceville (N.J.)
The Big Red and Brunswick clashed in a rematch of the first two Prep Nationals title games. Lawrenceville came up short in overtime, but Jon Posner‘s group took out its frustrations in an impressive 13-7 win over St. Anthony’s. Senior Connor Gately (Yale) led the onslaught with five goals and two assists against the Friars, senior Timmy Piacentini (Cornell) stopped 13 shots and senior Chris Matia (Crabs / Providence) paired two goals with two assists. A Saturday showdown with No. 13 Salisbury (Conn.) looms.
4. Malvern Prep (Pa.)
The Friars opened up Inter-Ac play with a pair of blowout wins before holding New Jersey power Delbarton (N.J.) to a scant two goals in a 7-2 win. Four-star juniors Owen Mears (Big 4 HHH / Duke) and Logan Turley (Big 4 HHH / Harvard) each tallied twice against the Green Wave. Five-star junior Michael Ortlieb (Big 4 HHH / Duke) went off for three goals and two assists in a 14-5 win over Episcopal Academy. No. 2 Haverford School travels to Malvern on Tuesday in a titanic clash.
5. Boys’ Latin (Md.)
Senior Connor Sydnor (Crabs / Air Force) popped off for four goals as the Lakers fended off Loyola Blakefield, 11-8. Five-star junior Matty Higgins (Team 91 LI / West Coast Starz / Maryland) snapped home a hat trick, which has become pretty commonplace for the future Terp. He also scored four times in a 14-6 win over John Carroll. A battle with No. 7 McDonogh is on the horizon on 4.23.
6. St. Anthony’s (N.Y.)
It was a mixed bag for the Friars last week. They started it off in style, using a lockdown defensive effort led by five-star senior Dante Vardaro (Team 91 LI / Penn) and five-star sophomore LSM Ethan Bramoff (LI Express) to down rival Chaminade, 12-6. Four-star senior Luke Breslin (Team 91 LI / Lehigh) led the offense with a third-quarter natural hat trick to fuel the offense.
The Friars fell behind No. 3 Lawrenceville early and never recovered in a 13-7 setback. They’ll host two-time defending Connecticut state champion Staples today.
7. McDonogh (Md.)
No. 1 junior Brendan Millon (Team 91 Maryland / Virginia) went off for three goals and two assists as the Eagles rolled past St. Mary’s, 16-5. McDonogh then fell, 8-7, against Calvert Hall in a rematch of the 2023 MIAA title game. Five-star junior goalie Aidan Seibel (Team 91 Maryland / Maryland) has been rock steady all season long for McDonogh. A pair of home dates, one with Archbishop Spalding and one with Loyola Blakefield, await McDonogh this week.
8. Western Reserve (Ohio)
It’s rare to have a successful goalie platoon at the high school level, but the Pioneers make it work. Four-star senior Tyler Coryea (Maryland) and Joe Budington (Michigan) were both rock-solid in goal as WRA knocked off Midwest power Culver (Ind.), 12-11, for the first time since Dylan Sheridan took over. The Pioneers got great play from their SSDM group of Albany commit Mason Sanden, Caden Smith (Marquette) and Luke Jaeger (West Coast Starz / Providence). Thursday’s date with No. 14 Hill Academy (Ont.) looms large.
9. Loomis Chaffee (Conn.)
The Pelicans continue their upswing with a 6-1 record, fresh off of a 15-6 win over Hotchkiss and a 12-10 win over Berkshire. Their only loss is to No. 1 Brunswick, a game in which they dearly missed standout senior faceoff midfielder Joe Hobot (Johns Hopkins). Junior Villanova commit Nate MacPherson and superb sophomore LSM Michael Brennan (LI Express) have led the defense in front of goalie Liam O’Keefe (Harvard). Senior Harvard commit Nate Cobery has led the offense, and the Pelicans look to be getting offensive reinforcements soon once sophomores Milki Conway-Reppert and Justin DiGiovanni return from injuries.
10. Landon (Md.)
The Bears have pieced together an impressive eight-game winning streak where they’ve won by an average of 8.4 goals. That includes a 9-3 win over Georgetown Prep and a 13-8 win over Bullis. Senior LSM Davis Owens (MadLax / Tufts) has been as good as any player in the DMV. He’s already got 10 goals for Landon after tallying twice against Bullis. Senior four-star Anthony Panetti (MadLax / Bucknell) paces the team with 45 points, while junior Bucknell commit Sean Murray (MadLax) has fired home 26 goals.
NLF High School 11-25
11. Culver (Ind.)
12. La Salle (Pa.)
13. Salisbury (Conn.)
14. Hill Academy (Ont.)
15. Calvert Hall (Md.)
16. Salesianum (Del.)
17. Radnor (Pa.)
18. Chaminade (N.Y.)
19. Highland Park (Texas)
20. Belmont Hill (Mass.)
21. Fairfield Prep (Conn.)
22. Deerfield (Mass.)
23. New Canaan (Conn.)
24. Darien (Conn.)
25. Saint Andrew’s (Fla.)
