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It didn’t take long for Jett Stake to have an opportunity to live out his lifelong dream.
North Carolina wasted no time in showing the Team 91 2027 Machine and Lawrenceville (N.J.) goalie how much of a priority he was for the Tar Heels. They called him right after midnight on Sept. 1, the day that college coaches could start reaching out to juniors. Less than 48 hours later, Stake had fulfilled his dream by committing to North Carolina.
“It’s everyone’s lifetime dream school,” Stake said. “You go to Lacrosse Unlimited when you’re a kid and you see UNC stuff all over the place and that’s really cool. It’s every kid’s dream to play at UNC and it was a dream of mine to go there. I was so fortunate that they called me at 12 and I got on a plane straight down. I had a great time at the football game and the atmosphere around campus was so sick. Just to be able to be there was surreal.”
Long Line of Tar Heels
Stake became the second ’27 Machine commit after Marco Petruccelli (Manhasset, N.Y.) verballed to Harvard. He joins a long line of 91 alums to suit up for the Tar Heels, including ’23 Bandits and UNC All-American attackman Owen Duffy (St. Anthony’s), the ’25 Shock trio of midfielder Anthony Raio (Half Hollow Hills West), midfielder Gary Merrill (St. Anthony’s) and LSM Parker McDonald (St. Anthony’s), ’24 Wolfpack defenseman Ben Fox (Chaminade) and ’26 Shock midfielder Anthony Mancaruso (St. Anthony’s), among others.
“It was a surreal feeling that Carolina called me right away,” Stake said. “Any kid would recognize that caliber of a school right away, especially when they worked their butt off to get there. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I was there with eight other recruits at the game, and it seems like everybody on campus bleeds Carolina blue. It was so awesome to see so many people interested in sports and how the campus is basing it around the athletes. Everyone was supporting one another, which is an amazing thing to see.”
Photo courtesy of Pat Donaghy
A Premier Goalie for North Carolina
The Massapequa resident was outstanding this spring as a sophomore starter in the cage for perennial top-5 school Lawrenceville. He followed it up with a very strong summer for a Machine team that reached the NLF National Championship game. Factor in all of the elite competition that he’s faced both in club and school, and you’ve got one of the most battle-tested goalies in the class.
“After the Salisbury game this spring (when he made 14 saves in an 8-6 win), it just hit me that, ‘wow, I can actually play against this caliber of kids,'” Stake said. “I just carried that momentum after that.”
Stake’s personal success in the cage has led to a lot of team success for the Machine over the years. It’s no surprise that he was such a highly sought-after commodity for an ACC powerhouse, even in what many consider to be an all-time goalie class.
“Jett has firmly established himself as one of the premier goalies in the class, and I wouldn’t want anyone else back there in our cage to lead our team to all of the success it’s had over the years,” Machine head coach and Team 91 founder Brian Spallina said. “He’s as good a big-game goalie as it gets. Jett always finds a way to come up with incredible saves that very few other goalies can get to. Jett brings incredible energy, passion and enthusiasm to the cage, and Coach Breschi and his staff are going to absolutely love having him. I couldn’t be more excited for Jett and can’t wait to see him light it up in Chapel Hill.”
Photo courtesy of Pat Donaghy
Always Going Hard
“Playing for 91 helped me so much,” Stake said. “We were fifth graders playing up and playing good teams then, and then we came down to play the 2027s. We played the best teams and we were able to dominate for a long time. I think it’s a lot about our practice rate. We just go hard every single time.”
There’s no other way to do it.