Lacrosse in Brick a tradition in the making
BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

Above, Brick Township's Timothy Firrman tries to get past Brick Memorial's Dave Moore during the Green Dragons' 11-5 win last Thursday at Brick Memorial. Below, Brick Township's Kaitlyn Pike sweeps in a goal past the Brick Memorial defense during their game, won by Brick Memorial, 12-4.

Brick Township's boys lacrosse team could not have found a much better way to put the finishing touches on its first season, rallying back for an 11-5 victory over Brick Memorial under the lights at Brick Memorial.

Prior to that game, the Brick Memorial girls won the first game of the doubleheader against Brick Township, 12-4, as Tahnya Fallon scored four goals, and Jen Kocher stopped 14 shots in goal.

In both meetings between crosstown rivals this season, Brick Memorial's winless boys struck first on a goal by Mike Jurkowski before Brick Township rallied back for a victory, as Steve Glowacki exploded for six goals, giving him 29 for the season. Brick Township finished 5-11.

"The players we have we can cultivate with young talent to mold into the Brick program for years to come," said coach Steve Maurelli, who loses six players to graduation, including his two top ones - Glowacki and Chris Cordiano. "This is a great start for a new program, but our seniors played a big part and we will miss them."

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After Brick Memorial's Jurkowski scored, Brick Township came back with four unanswered goals by Ken Brancaccio, Cordiano and a pair from Glowacki. Brick Memorial closed the first period with a goal to pull to 4-2. Glowacki added two more goals in the second period as Brick Township took a 7-3 halftime lead. Ken Bogart put in the other goal, and James Murphy had two assists.

"We were really excited playing in our crosstown rivalry and that we ended the season on a good note," said Maurelli.

Maurelli also praised senior Ray Mannion for playing a "great game," along with the continued strong defensive effort of Scott Davis and the goalkeeping of junior Noah Morris, whom Maurelli said "really picked it up defensively."

Maurelli said Mike Allaire, Mike Marco and Korey Barrow also had some shining moments during the season.

"They had one really good player in Glowacki and we could not stop him, and Chris Cordiano created havoc. He's very, very fast," said Brick Memorial coach Guy Lassen, who said he saw improvement as his team played during its season, including a pair of 5-1 losses to Wall, an 11-8 setback to Mainland and the 7-3 loss to Brick Township in the first game between the two first-year programs.

Mike Vincent scored twice, while Will Wilson and Sean Chafe each scored one goal. It was Chafe's first varsity goal since being called up recently from the junior varsity team. Lassen also praised the "great job" Vin Avellino did again on defense.

"He's been dominating," said Lassen of Avellino, who was the team's co-captain with senior midfielder Nick Crescenzo

"The important thing now is the off-season. As long as they keep a stick in their hands in the off-season and practice in the summer and play in a league that I'm getting them into, they'll be all right," said Lassen. "Our guys stayed very positive and played hard every quarter.

"The thing I'm proud of is that we have 25 guys on the [varsity] roster [as well as 13 strictly on junior varsity] and not one kid quit," continued Lassen. "I'm going to talk to the middle school eighth-graders during the week and see if we can get some kids to join up for next season. Our motto to get ready for next season is 'Bigger, faster, stronger, smarter.' We need that because we're playing programs that have been around four or five years, and we're behind those programs."

But there were times when Brick Memorial showed signs of narrowing that gap. Lassen praised his two junior midfielders who had never played lacrosse before this season - Wilson and Justin Mailloux.

"Their progress was amazing," said the coach. He also got determined goalkeeping from Joe Roselli and Quinn Heald, who split their time in the net against Brick Township, which had a 19-17 edge in shots on goal.

As for the girls game, Lisa Miller and Ashley Bechtle each added three goals, and Alyse Newman scored a goal and assisted six others. Samantha Melia had the other goal.

Ryanne Pellecchia played well on defense as one of three players in their final game for Brick Memorial, along with Fallon and Kocher.

Fallon and Miller each scored twice in the first half as Brick Memorial took a 6-0 lead. Kaitlyn Pike put in two goals in the second half for Brick Township, while Cody Wight and Heather Murray tallied the others. Randi Bell went the distance in goal for Brick Township.