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Schools

Central Runs Wild on Brick, Dragons Fall

Dragons had no answers for the Golden Eagles rushing attack as they piled up 400-plus yards on the ground

In between plenty of rain and two lightning delays, there was a football game played last night at Brick Township High School's field, turned quagmire.

With little flow to the game, the first minute gave a good preview of what was to come, following the first lightning delay with less than a minute played. By the time all was said and done, Central had beaten Brick 35-20.

It only took Central Regional's running back Kalyph Hardy three plays before bursting through the heart of the Dragons' defense on a 53 yard touchdown run, part of his 415 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 39 carries.

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"We gave him a lot of open field tonight by missing tackles," said Brick head coach Robert Dahl. "You can't miss the best back in the Shore like that. If you don't tackle him, he's gone."

On the ensuing kickoff, the Dragons would take over at their own 37 yard line. At that point, lightning was spotted in the area and the officials gave a mandatory half hour lightning delay.

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"I don't think it affected us that badly," said Dahl. "I thought it was good for us, actually. It let us sit back and talk about what happened and adjustments we would have to make."

Despite the incredible amount of yards he piled up, Brick did keep Hardy in check for a while. After the initial score and delay, Brick forced punts on the next two possessions for the Golden Eagles, but their offense struggled to get going. 

Passes being knocked down at the line appeared to be a problem for the Dragons, as senior quarterback Brandon Kieslor went 13-26 for 117 yards and a touchdown through the air and on the ground. Doug Cuccinello was bottled up all day spare his 24 yard touchdown run that got Brick on the board at 21-7 just before halftime. Cuccinello carried the ball 18 times for 79 yards and a score.

Kieslor rushed the ball 13 times for 63 yards along with a rushing TD in an attempt to rally Brick making the score 35-20.

However, that was as close as Brick would get. Just as the Dragons would creep back into it, Hardy would rip off a big run. Hardy had three runs over 50 yards and a fourth that went 95 and really created separation.

After a punt had just pinned the Eagles back at their own five yard line, all it took was one play for Hardy to gash the defense up the middle for the score. If Brick had forced a punt, they would have taken over with great field position for the first time. Instead they faced a 21-0 lead with 3:45 to play in the first half.

To make matters worse, the kick return was fumbled, giving the ball back to Central again. The ball changed possession for the third time in three plays when Jesse Lyon picked off a pass near the endzone and brought it out to the Brick 40 yard line.

Brick capitalized on the momentum, swinging play as Cuccinello soon scored, and many people began to hope that history would repeat itself with the Dragons pulling off two 21 point deficits to win.

When the opening half drive stalled at the Central 42 yard line, Dahl took a gamble and came up just inches short. Dahl called a fake punt run on fourth and nine. The ball snapped directly to Brendan Darcy who gained eight yards and two and a half feet, a foot shy of a new set of downs.

Kevin Francese and Tom Winters dragged down Hardy for a loss on third and ten on the Eagles' possession, forcing a punt. Kieslor would hit Joe Bench for a gain of five yards down to the Eagles 38 before two incompletions turned the ball over on downs.

The Dragons proceeded to force a fumble, as Winters pounded Hardy as he turned the corner, and junior Dan Watson jumped on the live ball. Kieslor would hit Kevin Matthews on a 17 yard fade in the endzone, but by that time the score was already 28-13.

After scoring and getting stops on the last two possessions, Hardy took off down the sideline for 55 yards, for the backbreaking touchdown making the score 35-13.

Dahl was not concerned with his pass game as much as he was with his lack of a run game.

"We don't want to be stuck in a position where all we have is the passing game going for us. It was just an old fashioned butt whooping, they came ready to play," the coach said.

Next Friday Brick will travel to Pinelands Regional for a game with the Wildcats. 

With Lacey beating Manchester 9-7 Friday night, anybody could come home with the B-South title. 

"We need to bounce back, we need to continue getting better everyday and stop talking. Today was a stepback. We got outcoached and outplayed, I'm not happy with it," said Dahl.

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