Offense was the name of the game in Aurora boys lacrosse in the 2024 season, as a slew of locals appear among the state leaders in goals, assists and total points.
The 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Lacrosse Team — as selected by the Sentinel in conjunction with input from area coaches — includes representation from five of the six area programs, which combined for a whopping 35 all-league accolades.
Regis Jesuit transitioned after the retirement of coaching legend Jim Soran to newcomer Ross Moscatelli and remained one of Colorado’s programs with a wide difference between the number of goals it scored and the number it allowed — 69 — which is a characteristic of all the teams that went deepest in the playoffs. The Raiders rode that disparity all the way to the Class 5A state semifinals.
Regis Jesuit’s top offensive threat was senior Jamie Rosenzweig, a St. Lawrence University recruit, who cracked the top 10 in 5A in total points with 72. Rosenzweig racked up 50 assists, which were the fourth-most in 5A, while he added 22 goals to boot. Both were career highs for the three-year starter, who was the Raiders’ most veteran offensive player.
Regis Jesuit continued to defend almost as well as anybody in Colorado, as it ceded the second-fewest goals in the state (114) behind only state champion Valor Christian, which allowed just 70.
Helping that effort was a unit that included two seniors in Gordon Reynolds and long stick middie Connor Nesbitt, who both were honored by the Colorado High School Activities Association as All-State first team performers as well as all-league first teamers. Not surprisingly, both ranked in the top three among local players in takeaways (34 for Villanova recruit Nesbitt, 30 for the University of Denver-bound Reynolds), while Nesbitt also secured 55 groundballs.
The duo fronted the stellar play in goal from junior Jackson Large, who took over between the pipes after Spencer Day graduated and moved on to Villanova. Large held up the lofty standard of Regis Jesuit netminders as he allowed just 6.6 goals per game (more than two fewer than the next local goalie) and made 146 saves in 18 games played.
Grandview won three games in the 2023 season and tripled that this season with a massive uptick in offense. The Wolves piled up the most goals of any team in Aurora by a wide margin — 30 — and that happened with a push from the trio of seniors Joe Alie and Liam Szarka plus sophomore Mason Kelly.
Joe Alie led Colorado in goals as a senior, as he piled up 65 of them in all, which was just eight fewer than his older brother, John, scored for the Wolves in 2022 when he led the state. Joe Alie moves on to join his brother at Division I Bellarmine after a career in which he scored 162 goals and had 46 assists in three varsity seasons. The CHSAA 5A All-State first team pick finished with 208 total points, which included 80 this season, which put him fifth in 5A.
Szarka — an Air Force Academy-bound star quarterback in football — returned to the team after he didn’t play last season and he was simply outstanding with a total of 52 goals that ranked above every other local player save Alie and he added 18 assists for 70 points, which is more than double what he had combined in his freshman and sophomor seasons. One point in front of Alie in fourth in 5A was Kelly, who piled up 81 with 53 assists and 28 goals. His assist total — more than double the 26 he had last season — led 5A.
Eaglecrest had one of the area’s more prolific scorers in senior attackman Everett Breniser, who helped the Raptors to a second straight 7-8 record. One of his team-high 38 goals was the one that stood up as the winner in Eaglecrest’s 12-11 win over Smoky Hill that earned custody of The Hammer traveling trophy again for the program.
Breniser was the only Aurora-area player to have more than 30 goals and 30 assists in the season and his 70 points ranked fifth among locals, while he also secured nearly 50 groundballs in the campaign.
Smoky Hill showed demonstrable improvement offensively, as coach Logan Booth’s team scored 35 more goals than in 2023 in one few game and upped its win total from four to five, while the Buffaloes also lost four agonizing one-goal contests.
Senior midfielder Brady Smith made a big impression with 77 total points, which included 51 assists that put him second to Kelly among 5A leaders and also vaulted him into the program’s all-time No. 1 spot with 116 in 48 career varsity games. He added 26 goals for 77 points, which was the most of any player in 5A League 1.
Cherokee Trail graduated a significant amount of offense firepower and saw a decline in its overall production, but the play of junior Blake Rodriguez in the faceoff circle was vital.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports