By Wayne witkowski
Staff Writer
Teams that struggle through a season often go through the motions and stagger to the end of the season. But that was not the case for Brick Township High School’s boys’ soccer team.
"It does hurt mentally, but we did not have one bad practice session. There were no bad attitudes for practice and for each game," said coach John Parani.
Much of that credit goes to the leadership supplied by captains Dan MacInnes, a left midfielder, and Matt Hockenbury, a center halfback, as well as co-captains Kevin Harmon, who played many different positions, and stopper Prescott Loveland. Harmon was second-team All-Ocean and Loveland was second-team All-Shore Conference.
Unfortunately, they are among the eight seniors who played extensively on this year’s team. Although some coaches would bemoan a huge rebuilding project like that which awaits next season, Parani feels quite differently.
He feels the skills shown by his underclassmen could improve and make for a promising future.
"That’s the truth," agreed Parani. "We had a nice mix of upperclassmen and younger guys coming in. It’s just a matter of the work that they put in the off-season."
Many of those returnees again will be playing in the league at GoodSports in Allaire, where many of the high school teams in the area play in the off-season.
Parani is especially pleased that he’ll have goalie Kristian Flitton, a junior who kept many games close in a 1-13 season, while earning second-team All-Shore Conference honors.
"He made one incredible save after another when we did have defensive lapses," said Parani. "He has all the tools — an incredible athlete with good size. One of the things that is tough is to get your hips up when you’re making a dive (for a save) and he did it."
Flitton’s backup is sophomore John Henriques, who also is a very good field player. Henriques now is preparing for wrestling season.
The Green Dragons needed good goal keeping for an anemic offense. Hockenbury’s four goals led the way and it’s an area that Parani is addressing with his team for next season, particularly with sophomore midfielder/forward Ryan Morris, who combines quick speed with a volatile shot on goal.
"If we finished our opportunities, we could’ve been a .500 team," Parani said. "For some reason, we’re not getting the pure goal-scorers this side of town (referring to Brick Memorial’s better offensive capabilities)."
What also hurt were injuries that broke up the lineup many times midway through the season.
"On the whole, we played good soccer, but we came up short," Parani said.
Parani felt a tough season was in store from the opening-game loss to Toms River South, although he saw some bright spots in competitive losses to powerful Jackson, 3-1; Toms River East, 3-1; Toms River North, 2-1; and Absegami, a 4-3 loss in which Brick had the lead for a while.
He’ll also miss graduating forward Javier Zuniga, whose family moved to Brick from Argentina two years ago, and talented midfielder Mike Kubas, but he is glad to have back junior Bob Rampone, who he says has "a very high work rate" covering the other team’s best forward.
"He’s fun to watch," said Parani.
He also has four sophomores who will play larger roles: forward Jose Gomez, skilled midfielder Matt Tunis, defender/midfielder Mike Hockenbury (Matt’s brother) and tough defender Shawn Venerable. Junior Dan Bauer came back to play sweeper after missing the first half of the season because of an injury and performed capably. Parani is also pleased to have junior forward Scott Shenloogian coming back.
It all gives Parani reason to feel optimistic for next fall.