Opposing teams never quite figured out how to stop Nate DelGiudice during his high school lacrosse career at Messalonskee. DelGiudice set the Class A gold standard for scoring, racking up 300 points during his four-year career.

After leading the state in scoring his junior season, DelGiudice was doubled and tripled teamed and, although his goal production went down slightly, his assists rose.

“Nate was a real team player,” Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan said. “He drew so many defenders to him during a game that it opened up our offense and Nate found the openings for his teammates.”

DelGiudice reached the 300-point plateau (152 goals, 148 assists) with an assist in his final game for Messalonskee.

For his outstanding season DelGiudice has been named the Morning Sentinel/Kennebec Journal Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year for the second straight season. Also considered were Seth Wing and Justin Lovely of Gardiner and Dan Giguere of Maranacook/Winthrop.

DelGiudice was also named the the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

Equally important to DelGiudice was the Eagles continued success on the field as a team. A tournament fixture in the Eastern A tournament during his career, the Eagles earned their fourth straight appearance after losing a talented graduating class.

“Going in we knew we had lost a lot from last season,” DelGiudice said. “The underclassmen stepped up really big. With defenses playing me the way they were, I had to do my best and all I wanted was for us to make the playoffs.

“I didn’t know about the 300 points until I was about 20 points away,” he said. “It was nice but the team winning was more important.”

After a strong performance in the playoffs the year before the Eagles were ready to move forward, two straight losses to open the season knocked the wind out of the team. A four-game winning streak, but two more losses, put the season in jeopardy.

In a night game at home against Lewiston, DelGiudice went to work, scoring three goals and adding three assists and igniting another four-game win streak that carried Messalonskee through to the end of the regular season.

“We got off to a rough start,” DelGiudice said. “The Lewiston game under the lights got us back into the swing. Lewiston was a really good team but we came through with a whole team effort from defense all the way through.”

DelGiudice found the defensive tactics used against him a challenge and found his teammates more than ready for each game.

“I had to create more passing situations. They were face guarding every game,” he said. “I was able to dump the ball off to my teammates for assists.”

By the numbers, DelGiudice finished his high school lacrosse career with 300 points, including: Freshman 26 goals, 30 assists; sophomore 37 goals, 35 assists; junior 56 goals, 39 assists and senior 33 goals, 44 assists.

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