BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
Brick Township’s boys lacrosse team continued along its impressive inaugural season when Steve Glowacki’s hat trick sparked a 7-3 victory over Brick Memorial before a big crowd at the winner’s field.
Despite getting outshot, 13-12, the Green Dragons made the most of their opportunities in the comeback victory, their third in four starts.
“I’m very pleased,” said coach Steve Maurelli. “For any first-year coach with a first-year program, you never know what could happen. But this group definitely knows when it’s time to step it up.”
Brick Memorial’s Nick Crescenzo struck first in the second period, his first of two goals in the game before Brick Township closed out the half with three unanswered goals for a 3-1 lead it never lost. The Green Dragons added three more goals to their lead in the third period for a cozy 6-1 advantage going into the fourth period for goalie Noah Morris.
Glowacki, who has a dozen goals on the season, saw his efforts bolstered by four other contributing scorers against Brick Memorial goalie Owen Heald to give the Green Dragons the balance that Maurelli feels the team needs to continue to be successful.
“This put in perspective that we have to play as a team,” said Maurelli. “We needed that (balance) because it was a very physical game.”
Certainly, the game met Maurelli’s expectations as a tough back-and-forth encounter, with Brick Township holding a noteworthy size advantage.
“I was nervous coming in,” said Maurelli. “It’s always a tremendous rivalry when these two teams play each other coming from the same town, and I knew they (Brick Memorial) would come out on fire. It (falling behind early) was more of a reality check for us. This is a great start of the season and I hope it doesn’t catch up with us because now we’re going to start playing programs that have been around, starting on Monday when we play at Southern. This will be a measuring stick for the rest of the season.”
The Green Dragons also traveled yesterday to Colts Neck and play host to formidable Freehold Township today for a 3:45 p.m. start.
Ken Brancaccio, who also has been a key figure in the solid start by Brick Township along with Glowacki, recorded one goal and one assist. Chris Cordiano, playing his first game of the season and who is another highly regarded prospect, also had one goal and one assist. Mike Colabella and James Murphy scored the other goals. Tim Firrman and Mike Masefield had assists.
Scott Davis excelled on defense for Brick Township, while Maurelli also praised the efforts of his bench, that got some action late in the game, with Matt Cuccinelli leading the reserves.
Brandon Person tallied the other goal for Brick Memorial, which still is seeking its first victory after six outings. The Mustangs traveled to Mainland Regional on Tuesday this week and play host to Jackson on Friday.
“The last two games, it’s looking like real lacrosse for us,” said Brick Memorial coach Guy Lassen. “Our goal is to get better each practice. We’re going from 13-0 losses (to closer ones) and my job is to keep them motivated and to improve in small steps by keeping teams under 10 goals, playing tight defense and now we have some new techniques to help us learn to compete.”
One step, said Lassen, is moving Crescenzo from midfield to the attack and using the talents of midfielder Vin Avellino to push the ball up the field faster. He also praised the efforts of Will Wilson and Justin Mailloux in the midfield.
“Our midfielders are playing remarkably well,” said Lassen. “We don’t have the size and early in the season we were playing mostly on defense but now they are playing with more heart.”
This means that Brick Memorial is confidently mounting more attacks and creating more scoring opportunities with a pair of three-goal games this season.
In girls lacrosse, Brick Township fell to 0-6 in a 14-2 loss to Toms River East, which broke away from a 7-2 halftime lead.