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Schools

Dragons, 'Stangs to Face Off Tonight

Both of Brick's high school football teams kick off seasons tonight

Get ready, Brick Township.

For the second year, and will kick off their football seasons facing each other. After the Mustangs imposed a 34-0 tromping last season on their cross-town rivals, the Dragons will look for revenge on their home field this Friday night.

The opener will start Brick Memorial's climb to return to the Central Jersey Group IV final for a fourth consecutive year. The Mustangs beat Sayreville, 24-0, in 2008, for their second title in school history, but fell 9-0 to East Brunswick in 2009 and 14-0 this past December to Sayreville.

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Brick Township is looking to get the Dragons back to old form. After two sub-par seasons under Patrick Dowling, with two 4-6 records, the school board and the Dragons decided to part ways with Dowling, and hire Rob Dahl – a Brick native who played for legendary former Head Coach Warren Wolf – as the new head coach.

Dahl was an assistant in Brick for six years before Dowling was hired. He spent his last two seasons as an assistant coach at Jackson Memorial high school.

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Dahl, who says he roots for the Mustangs on a regular basis, said he is prepared for what this season is going to throw at him.

“Obviously, there is going to be pressure,” he said. “But I’m much more concerned that our players and our coaching staff are ready for the game. It’s a big game because it’s against a cross-town rival, but win, lose or draw, I’m more concerned with the players and coaches giving 110%.”

Dahl also said the team can learn a thing or two from the success that the Mustangs have garnered over the past three seasons.

“They are an established program,” he said. “Coach [Walt] Currie and his staff do a marvelous job. I have a few friends who are coaches over there, and we joke around all the time about how we can’t root for each other one game out of the year.”

The Mustangs will look to replace senior quarterback Mike Digluimi, who played a role in all three trips to the sectional title, along with a strong defense, and an electric offense from 2010.

Brick Memorial scored 73 points through their first two playoff games last season – most notably a 48-0 win over North Brunswick in the semi-finals.

"We look at it as our next game, and the next game is always the most important," Currie told Brick Patch.

While Memorial has had greater success in recent years, the hiring – and firing – of former coach Dowling has placed the Dragons in the media spotlight as Wolf followed up his retirement with a successful run for the township's school board. Currie was the commensurate sportsman when asked about the situation.

"We're very proud of the way our program has been successful over the past couple years and even the last ten to fifteen years," he said. "We know that Brick Township has a rich tradition of football, and even since they have hicupped in the past few years, we know they will look to bring their program back to where it was."

While the Mustangs are an established program that is feared as one of the Shore Conference’s elite, Dahl feels that his Dragons can use Friday night’s game as a building block.

“It’s a great measuring stick to see where we’re at,” he said. “We’re really trying to get this program back on the map and I think this could be a great start for us.”

As for Currie, it's all about performance.

"Everything comes down to execution," he said. "We need to block and tackle and protect the football. We know there's a lot of hype but once that ball is kicked off it will come down to blocking, tackling and eventually execution."

The game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Brick Township high school.

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