The Person brothers — senior Brandon and freshmen Adam and Tyler — played key roles as Brick Memorial High School’s hockey team clinched a return to the NJSIAA tournament where it reached the Public School A semifinals last season. Crosstown rival Brick Township also clinched a berth for the second straight year.
Adam Person scored midway through the third period when Brick Memorial played to a 1-1 tie with Monsignor Donovan early last week. Monsignor Donovan leads Shore Conference A South, followed by Brick Memorial and Brick Township.
Brandon Person scored two goals, including the go-ahead goal, as Brick Memorial nosed out St. John Vianney, 3-2, to clinch its state tournament berth at 9-4-5.
Brandon Person scored the first goal and later put Brick Memorial ahead, 2-1,when he converted an even strength goal near the net off passes from Adam Person and Colin Trevors, another freshman who stepped in for Jason Franceschini, who is out with a shoulder injury but expected back this week. Tyler Person made it 3-1 with an unassisted goal.
“It’s good. I’m very pleased because the pressure is off us and now we have to start getting ready for another season with the playoffs,” Brick Memorial coach Chip Bruce said.
The Shore Conference will seed teams for its tournament on Friday. The NJSIAA does its seeding two weeks later for the first-round games in the beginning of March.
Coming off that hard-fought victory over St. John Vianney, Brick Memorial lost the next day on Saturday at Ridge, 6-0.
“We played them well in the first period [losing 1-0] and then we had a couple of breakdowns and we didn’t capitalize on opportunities,” Bruce said.
His team was outshot for one of the few times this season, 36-30, and trailed, 3-0, entering the final period. “We had come off a tough game the night before so I’m not concerned about that loss,” he said. “I’d be more concerned if we didn’t have opportunities [to score].”
Bruce also hopes his team has Nick Alvarez back, who has been out for two weeks with an injured knee.
Brick Township, meanwhile, got two goals from Jesse Halleck and fine goalkeeping from Ed Rafferty as it went on to beat Hopewell Valley, 5-1, in its only game last week to improve to 9-6-2. It closed its regular season on Tuesday at Toms River East.
“We were in it last year and hopefully we’ll go farther,” said Brick Township coach Bob Auriemma, whose team lost its state tournament opener last year. “We have a lot of kids back and that has helped us.”
Matt Dornacker, who played well against Hopewell Valley along with Pat Kearns, leads the 9-6-2 Green Dragons with 19 points, followed closely by Matt Gumina and Connor Noonan.