PHOTOS, VIDEO: Bonner sets new scoring as LCM looks to get back on track after win over Woodstown

Posted: April 21st 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

ERMA – One of Lower Cape May Regional High School’s top male athletes of recent times added another accomplishment to his already impressive sports resume Saturday.

In scoring his third goal of the game early in the fourth quarter against Woodstown, senior midfielder Macky Bonner set a new Caper Tiger boys lacrosse goal-scoring record with his 141st career tally. The goal broke the previous school record of 140 set by 2018 graduate Chase Mendyk.

The milestone came in a 9-5 win over the Wolverines.

“He deserves every single second of it,” said Lower coach Cole Blackley, who once held the program scoring record himself before Mendyk surpassed him. “He’s a leader on and off the field and he’s somebody we rely on a lot. He deserves all of that.”

Bonner, also a career 1,000-point scorer who led the school’s boys basketball team to a regular-season conference championship over the winter, has recorded 11 goals, nine assists and 28 ground balls so far this season, all team highs.

The win was a needed one for a talented Lower Cape May team that has been wildly inconsistent so far this season. The Tigers posted an impressive win at Clearview and a one-goal overtime loss to perennial power Ocean City over its first three games, but then followed that up with subpar efforts in recent losses to Holy Spirit and Mainland.

Lower (4-3) started slowly against Woodstown – the Tigers trailed 2-0 to start and the game was tied 4-4 at intermission – but dominated the second half.

“We have some players, especially some of our upperclassmen, that really need to step up,” Blackley said. “We have some guys playing too much individual lacrosse and lacrosse isn’t really an individual game, it’s a big team game. We’re starting to forget that a little bit.

“We have to get back to the game we were playing at the beginning of the year. I know we have it in us.”

Lower was a CAL playoff tournament qualifier last season, reaching the final before losing to Ocean City. There is much work to be done for the team to reach the playoff tournament again this spring.

“We have to win out,” Blackley said bluntly. “There’s not much else we can do. We have to try to win out if we want to make CALs.”

Brandon Loper led Lower with three goals and two assists in the win over Woodstown. Ryan Gibson and Jake Robson each added a goal and two assists and Dennis Serra chipped in a goal and an assist. Zac Castellano won seven faceoffs and contributed an assist. Ty Bonner made 10 saves in goal.

Lower is next scheduled to play Tuesday at home against Mainland.