McDonald, Lions Roar Into Shore Soccer Semis

senior Logan McDonald expected to be one of the Lions boys soccer team’s leaders in his final season, but he did not expect a leadership role to entail playing a position he had never played before.

A few days into preseason camp this past summer, Lacey coach Joe Humenik asked McDonald – an outside fullback during the first three years of his high school career – to make the move to goalkeeper, a spot left vacant with the graduation of Steve Abramovitch last year.

"We were looking at a couple guys to play keeper, and we got it down to Logan and Joe Stapleton, who's also a very good goalie," Humenik said. "We picked Logan because of his size and athleticism and because we had some young guys who were looking really good in the back. Plus, it meant we could keep Joe in the midfield where we needed him."

The move has paid off in spades for McDonald and the Lions, and the 6-foot-5, two-sport athlete in goal has been a major reason the Lions will be playing in their first Shore Conference Tournament semifinal since 2001 after stunning second-seeded Toms River East 1-0 on Tuesday night. In three tournament games, McDonald has recorded two shutouts and saved three out of six shots in a round of penalty kicks after the Lions played Toms River South to a 2-2 draw in Saturday’s round of 16.

“Logan is one of our captains and it’s great to have his leadership back there,” Humenik said. “Obviously, he’s a very good athlete and he has the size to be very good in goal, but you need to be vocal and confident back there and Logan is all of those things and more back there.”

Finding a capable goalkeeper is not the only benefit to McDonald’s move into the goal. The senior midfielder Stapleton was another candidate to play keeper and by choosing McDonald, Humenik kept one of his top players in Stapleton in the middle of the field. Stapleton has scored five goals this season, two of which came in the round-of-16 game against Toms River South. The second of those tied the game at 2 with 1:58 left in the second half, effectively sending the game into overtime and preserving what has become a historic run.

“It’s been pretty special,” McDonald said of the Lions’ roll through the SCT. “We’ve been a good team all season long, but nobody really took us seriously because they said were didn’t beat anybody and we couldn’t win in this tournament. We knew all along we could win in the postseason and that the pressure is never on us. We’re the number seven seed, (Toms River East) is the number two seed. The pressure is all on them. We can just go out, have fun and give it our best shot the rest of the way.”

Tying the game against Toms River South set the stage for McDonald’s shootout heroics, as he saved three out of six Indians shots in his first-ever round of penalty kicks in net.

"His basketball skills definitely come into play," Lions junior and leading scorer Kevin Tonkovich said. "He has the size and the quickness to move around in the box, and plus he's a smart player, too. He's played outside back before and when you take all of that experience, it makes you better."

Lacey’s defense has also emerged over the course of the season and with McDonald’s shift to goal leaving an open spot in the defensive backfield, two sophomores have emerged to fill in the holes. Tyler Dickson and Evan Reitmeyer have joined up with seniors Dan Moore and Brendan Byrne to form a unit that has, along with McDonald, allowed only 16 goals in 20 games.

The defense was instrumental in warding off an early push from Toms River East Tuesday night before the rest of the attack settled into the game. McDonald saved a shot from six yards out by Raiders senior Nick DePasquale 20 seconds into the game, Toms River East’s best scoring opportunity of the game.

“That was an intense first few minutes,” McDonald said. “They came at us really hard and we were on our heels a little at first. We’re not a team that gets off to great starts, so once we survived that early scare, I think we felt pretty good.”

The Lions weathered the early storm and finally broke a scoreless tie when senior Chris Thompson settled a pass from John Halliday and slid a shot to the left side of the goal in the 69th minute.

“We had been working for an opportunity all game and once I looked up and saw the keeper and saw the goal, I went right for that far post,” Thompson said. “I was a little worried (goalkeeper Anthony Correia) might make a diving save at the last minute, but the ball just kept going.”

Lacey will play Holmdel Thursday night in its first SCT semifinal appearance in 10 years. Back in 2001, the Lions lost to Colts Neck in the semifinals on a team led by, among others, Christian Pontier, who is now the head boys soccer coach at Shore Regional High School.

“It’s great that we’re able to make our own history,” McDonald said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to have this kind of success, but it’s been a long process that was started long before we got here. It started with the teams led by Steve Torre and Craig Rutter and then Dan Ratyniak and Max Dolphin last year. Those guys laid the foundation, and we’re just continuing what they started.”