South Jersey lacrosse spotlight

Morgan Wright is the first to say how much Nicole Lankford meant to the Bishop Eustace girls' lacrosse team.

"Even now, she's still a big part of our team," Wright said. "She's still there to support us, but we definitely miss her on the field."

Lankford, a Marquette recruit and the Crusaders' all-time leading scorer, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Eustace's final preseason scrimmage.

The injury raised plenty of questions for a team with high hopes for this season. But the Crusaders, led by the increased scoring of Wright, have been assertively answering every one of them.

Bishop Eustace is 4-0, including a signature win on Tuesday over Olympic Conference and Group 1 rival Haddonfield. The Crusaders dropped the Olympic's National Division title and lost a sectional playoff matchup to Haddonfield last year.

"Beating Haddonfield after losing to them last year was a huge confidence booster for us," said Wright, a senior midfielder who netted two goals in Tuesday's 8-6 victory over the Bulldogs. "The whole team has just been picking it up and trying to make up for all that Nicole did on the field."

Wright, who usually excels at dishing the ball, said she's trying to become more of a scoring threat because of Lankford's injury. So far, Wright has nine goals and is leading the Crusaders offense along with fellow midfielder Kristen Kelbon.

"Last year, Morgan was the player who set up a lot of our scoring," Eustace coach Kat Burke-Esposito said. "But now she's reaping the benefits of her hard work and she's scoring some goals herself, which is nice to see."

   - Chris Melchiorre