Brick Township boys lax end season on top

Ken Bogert and his fellow Brick Township boys lacrosse teammates could not find a better way to end the season.

Bogert scored two goals as Brick Township beat Jackson Liberty, 6-5, on Monday last week to end with its most victories (8- 10) in its young three years of varsity-level play. His pair of goals gives himthemost by any player in a season, 32, surpassing Steve Glowacki's previous mark of 30. Bogert set up by his four-goal outburst the previous week in an 8-1 victory over Ocean. Tim Firrman, Jim Whalen, Ben Centrella and Frank Poalillo also scored against Jackson Liberty.

"Everyone played hard knowing it was the last game and I wanted to beat the record," said Bogert, who also had seven assists. "I thought this was our best year so far with the eight wins and making the Shore Conference Tournament [for the first time]."

Seven players who had important roles in the success this season graduate, including goalkeeper Chad Faulkner, defensemen David Egee and Nick Iacoves and midfielders Mike Colabella, James Murphy, Mark Masefield and Ken Brancaccio, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament toward the end of the season.

But the three leading scorers come back for their senior year, including Bogert, Firrman with 22 goals and 12 assists, and Whalen with 21 goals and 19 assists.

"We definitely improved over the course of the three years," said SteveMaurelli,who has coached the team from the start when some players and parents pressed the township's Board of Education to approve boys lacrosse as a varsity sport by helping to provide financial support through fundraisers. "We're starting to establish the program. Nowthe one goalwe need to set is to beat an established team.We got close, but we need to establish ourselves in [Shore Conference] ASouth."

Although the Green Dragons usually outperformed teams on their own level, there were indications of them getting closer to turning a corner against the tougher teams with close losses to the three Toms River teams, including onegoal margins to Toms River South and Toms River North.

"Usually we had gotten killed by teams in the Shore Conference [in past seasons]," said Bogert.

Getting as many players involved to make it more challenging for opposing defenses was the motto the coach preached throughout the season that led to the success it achieved at times.

"It was teamwork on the field, defending and moving the ball up the field," said Maurelli. "Most goals [we scored] had an assist. Against Brick Memorial, we had five different guys scoring when we beat them, 10-4."

"Passing [the ball] definitely helped this year," said Bogert. "Last year, guys tried to do it by themselves. For myself, I stepped it up this year and found a way to get the ball in the net."

That showed against Jackson Liberty when Bogert struck early from outside the crease off a pass from Firrman and then sealed the victory when he dodged two defenders and scored from close range. Bogert felt having different guys score raised the team's confidence and drive.

"Seeing me scoring goals, the guys stepped it up and played up to expectations," said Bogert. "This year shows we have to pick it up for next year."

Despite losing some integral players, Maurelli feels there is a strong enough nucleus for the team to be even more competitive and to qualify for the NJSIAA Tournament for the first time next season after just missing it as the cutoff this year.

"We have a lot of juniors and will have much more speed for next season," said Maurelli. "We need consistency. We played really well in one game and then

when it's a tough team, we did not play well at all."

There is a mixture of returning players at both ends of the field, including Ken's brother - Kevin, a freshman - on defense along with junior Kevin Trolan and sophomore Sean Greenwood. Dylan Beaver, a sophomore who was the starting goalie throughout the hockey season, will be Faulkner's successor in the nets for the lacrosse team next spring. There are plenty of experienced, talented players in midfield but they're young, including sophomores Mike Auriemma, Byron Guise and Kevin Deskalovitz and freshman Pat Kearns, who came on strong this season much like he did for the hockey team during the winter.

Along with the big three returning scorers, others will look to help balance the offense on the attack, including juniors Anthony Francese, Bob Koste and Frank Poalillo.

Maurelli hopes the players continue to show the dedication they had during the season in the off-season to stay sharp and conditioned going into spring workouts. And he hopes the number of candidates that have increased over the years, with many coming off the township's Brick Lacrosse Club program, continues for next season as well. Some got interested from playing other varsity sports with similar rules and concepts such as hockey and soccer.

"The sport is growing and I'll continue to talk to kids around school about it," Maurelli said. "We encourage more to come out and try out."