By: Carolyn M. Hartko
Tuesday night’s boys’ lacrosse game between St. Rose of Belmar and South Brunswick High was proof that in lacrosse, the flow of the game can change direction as quickly as a skittish wild pony.
South Brunswick watched St. Rose battle back from two deficits and score the eventual winning goal with 37 seconds left in the first sudden death overtime for an 8-7 win over the hosts.
"We owned the first quarter, and then we came out in the second quarter and played as if the game were over," Viking head coach Mark Ziminski said. "We lost our intensity. We took some stupid penalties. The next thing you know, they’re back in at 3-2."
It did look like the Vikings could do no wrong in the first quarter. After about three solid minutes of possession, and good offensive movement of the ball, freshman Pete Sarangnese made it 1-0 at the 8:35 mark. Four minutes later, sophomore Ryota Ishikawa set up Sarangnese’s second goal. With three minutes to go in the period, Ishikawa made it 3-0 off a nice pass from Adam Scalise. Scalise came up with the ball out of a mid-field tangle, then brought it down the right side. St. Rose hardly got the ball over the midfield line throughout the entire first quarter.
But then things fell apart for the Vikings, who could not solve goalie Dan Williams (22 saves). The Purple Roses’ main shooter, Brian Moore notched two goals in the closing minutes of the first half.
Twenty seconds into the third period, Rob Kochel tied it for the Roses after a breakaway off the face-off. But the Vikings perked up and began to look like the team that had dominated the opening stanza. Ishikawa scored off a pass from Sarangnese, then assisted on one by Brian Kneis. Sarangnese completed his hat trick with a nice shot from right in front of the goalie off a pass from Chris Pedersen, putting the Vikings back on top 6-3.
St. Rose, however, refused to give up. Playing a man down, Will Clayton snuck one in off a pass from Moore at the halfway mark of the third period.
South Brunswick added to their cushion early in the fourth quarter with a goal by Pat Jenkins (assist, Ishikawa), making the score 7-4. St. Rose answered with another score a minute later, but South still had a two-goal advantage, and held onto it for seven minutes. That’s when St. Rose broke South’s possession, and notched two goals within 25 seconds of each other. The one that tied the game came off the stick of Moore, giving him a hat trick. Moore also scored the game-winner near the end of the overtime period.
"The way we’ve been winning our games is just to possess the ball," Ziminski said. "Actually, our upper classmen made mistakes and turned the ball over twice, and (St. Rose) came back and tied the game. So, in actuality, we didn’t deserve to win the game, because it takes a complete game to beat good teams, and we didn’t play a complete game. They’re a good team. They beat Immaculata, so it’s not like we lost to a bad team."
Although the loss drops the Vikings to 9-5, they have already clinched a berth in this year’s NJSIAA tournament. Teams have to be .500 or better by tomorrow (Friday) in order to qualify.
EXTRA MAN: The Vikings outshot the Roses 40-18 … Viking goalie Don Rodner made 11 saves.
