Twp. boys, Memorial girls fail to qualify for state lax tourney

Brick Township's boys and Brick Memorial's girls lacrosse teams fell short of qualifying for the NJSIAA Tournament, but Brick Township's boys gained some satisfactionwhen qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament for the first time.

Ken Bogert scored off a pass fromJames Murphy in the first quarter to tie it before Red Bank Catholic responded with four unanswered goals to beat the Green Dragons, 15-2, in the opening round of the Shore Conference Tournament. Mike Colabella scored the other goal.

"Theymoved the ball very quickly," Brick Township coach Steve Maurelli said of Red Bank Catholic. "But it was good that we got into the tournament for the first time."

The game came right after a 20-3 loss to Red Bank Catholic that eliminated Brick Township (6-9 coming into this week) from qualifying for the state tournament. James Whalen scored twice in that game.

Earlier in theweek, Brick Township beat rival BrickMemorial, 10-4, as Tim Firrman scored three goals and had two assists. Bogert fired in two goals, and Colabella, Murphy, Pat Kearns, Anthony Francesco and Bob Koste put in the others. Colabella had two assists. Brick Township trailed, 3-2, at halftimewhen it scored five straight goals in the third quarter.

"We weren't playing our game in the first half and then we started to settle down," said Maurelli. "We played better and spread out the ball better and controlled things better in the offensive zone in the second half."

Dan Lamela had the hat trick for Brick Memorial, which slipped to 5-9 after the only head-to-head match between the crosstown rivals this season.

Maurelli hailed the defensive efforts in that game and in many during the season by long pole David Egee. Also in that game, his team lost midfielder Ken Brancaccio to injury for the rest of the season, which made the challenge even tougher for the upcoming games against the two Red Bank teams.

Brick Memorial girls, meanwhile, needed to sweep its four games, starting early last week, before the cutoff on Monday this week, and saw their hopes ended in a 17-10 loss to Toms River South. Although it never led, the injury-riddled team hung close until Toms River South pulled away near the end. Hannah Corrino fired in four goals and AlexaWorman and Alex Montalto each put in two.

"We lost somany playerswe depended on so much. It was difficult seeing the girls go through it," said first-year head coachCourtney Richardson, who hailed the courageous goalkeeping of Jessica Khalil, who made some fine saves throughout the season and in games last week.