Nate Muntone has enjoyed significant improvements since he started playing on the Ewing High School boys lacrosse team.
In three short years, the junior attackman has seen his game grow rapidly as he’s gotten more serious about the sport, and right in line with his own development has come the Blue Devils’ emergence.
“When I was a freshman, especially for me, it was more just for fun in that, for me it was a new sport and we weren’t the greatest anyway,” Muntone said. “So it was more just having fun. But coming into this season, each game we realized we could definitely have a chance if we just put in the work. So that was the big mindset change we had this year.”
Muntone has seen his numbers rocket, and that has helped Ewing reach some rare ground. After having 10 points as a freshman on seven goals and three assists in a two-win season, Muntone doubled his output last year to 20 points on 12 goals and eight assists and the Blue Devils doubled their win total to four. This spring, both have reached new heights with Muntone second on the team in points behind Gavyn Vazquez with 49 points on 39 goals and 10 assists. Even better, Ewing set a program record for wins in a 10-9-1 season that earned them their first trip to the state tournament since 2017.
“It’s great because we’ve put in a lot of work this season and we’ve come really far from especially my freshman year,” Muntone said. “People have gotten really close and have put the work in, especially in the offseason I know a lot of us got a lot better. So it’s just great to be a part of the team.”
Ewing’s reward for its best season in program history was a date with No. 1 seed Ocean City in the South Jersey Group 2 state tournament. The Blue Devils went to the state tournament three times from 2014-17, but are still looking for their first state tournament win, and they knew that likely wasn’t in the cards against the best team in the sectional this year.
“It’s a 16-1 matchup,” said Ewing coach Trevor Hahn. “When we go I said, just going and playing this is going to give you a sense of what real lacrosse is. It might not be fun, it might be tough, but this is a chance to really show you what the high level is. And I told them, for my seniors, I said guys this is probably most likely potentially going to be your last ever game. I know Nate’s coming back next year. I said just go out and have fun, make an enjoyment of it, set the bar high. This is a programmatic goal of the highest order for us. Just getting into states is a huge thing for our program. Be proud of where you’ve come, what you’re doing.”
Hahn’s first year when Muntone’s class came in was the second straight two-win season for Ewing. Last year’s growth set the stage for this season. The Blue Devils showed signs they were getting more serious about the sport across the board. They brought in assistant coaches Nate Kocheran and Ralph Jeudy. Kocheran worked in molding the defense into a tougher unit while Jeudy orchestrated the offense. Their addition helped Hahn spend more time overseeing the team and gave him confidence in how they were developing.
“Ralph does a great job of working with the offense on how to quickly work the ball around, quick catch into the shot,” Hahn said. “Nate is great with the defense, teaching them how to slide and you can tell there’s players like Nate Jones, all these guys who were younger and maybe more inexperienced because maybe lacrosse isn’t their first sport — these guys probably go on to college soccer and other sports — but seeing them progress and play at the top level and being able to lock down any team’s best player just based off of listening to the coach has been great.”
Ewing has gotten strong goalie play out of sophomore Aaron Medina, who’s been improving every week. At the other end, Muntone was part of a strong offensive attack. Six players had 20 or more points — Vazquez, Muntone, Jason Carter, Chris Jones, Tyler French and Jaxon Carter. Vazquez was the top producer and went into the state game just two goals shy of 100 for his career. He’s worked well with Muntone. There were only two games all season in which Muntone didn’t score.
“I just put in a lot of work in the offseason just going to the field and just getting simple things down,” Muntone said. “Also I have just kind of learned my role on the team and what I need to do to make us win the game. So once I was able to realize how I can help the team benefit, I just kept doing it every game and it worked every time.”
Wins in five of their first eight games set the tone. They already had more wins than a year ago by midseason. They kept in the hunt for a playoff spot and their power points were high enough to secure a berth that was a goal from the outset.
“It was definitely a possibility because a lot of the players on the team, the juniors and the seniors, we’ve all played, we all knew each other for a while and we’ve been playing together for three or four years now,” Muntone said. “So we just have like a bond that helped us get better throughout the years. So definitely coming into the season we knew it could be a really good one.”
Hahn always had faith that the program could grow. An assistant for the school’s soccer team, he often asked players to give lacrosse a try. That’s how Muntone started to play lacrosse. A center midfielder for the soccer team, he picked up lacrosse as a second sport. Now he’s having as much fun playing lacrosse.
“I used to like soccer a lot more, but especially through this year from lacrosse, I think lacrosse might have taken the upper hand just because the program’s getting better and our soccer team’s not the greatest,” Muntone said. “But we’re getting somewhere there, maybe next year we could do well. But I think lacrosse is taking it.”
It showed in his dedication to his skillwork. He’s grown each year and took a big leap this year. He wanted to develop his game and put in more work than ever at it.
“Freshman and sophomore year was still really just for fun and I wasn’t that familiar with the sport because my first year ever playing was freshman year,” he said. “So coming in junior year, I kind of knew what I had to focus on, like my shooting, how to get better, like my agility, speed, all that. So I just knew more drills I had to do. When I was younger, I wasn’t really acknowledged in the sport. But now I am.”
Hahn pitches to prospective players that they are athletic and once they learn how to throw and catch, they’re just going to keep improving from there. They are coached up on the nuances of playing offense and defense, and they become much more comfortable in their roles. That’s certainly been the case for Muntone and others.
“I just think that we can just keep getting better, especially as a team, if we just keep working in the offseason and we stay committed,” Muntone said. “Honestly, we could do way better than we did this year. It just looks like the program’s getting better for the future. There’s definitely a lot of improvement that can be done and has been seen.”
New additions and a strong sophomore class only helped to raise the level of the team. Then the returning juniors and seniors put in more time to prepare for the season. It’s paid off for Muntone and the Blue Devils.
“You can just see just from the change from a sophomore or a junior year, Nate’s been an outstanding player for us,” Hahn said. “He’s the secondary captain for us. We’re looking for him possibly to fill these vacancies in our captain roles next year. He’s the leader on the program.”
His example is a bright spot for other young players. Muntone sees a lot of similarities in the newest Blue Devils who have never played the sport before this season. And he’s proof of how much they can develop. That’s going to be a key to next year when the Blue Devils try to push the program further after an encouraging 2026 spring.
“We have a lot of goals to work towards next year,” Hahn said, “but I’m definitely confident in this team to have, again, a winning season, pushing for the division, the CVC, and pushing hopefully to make it into states next year.”
