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Schools

Dragons Will Have Their Hands Full on the Gridiron This Fall

Back-to-back 4-6 seasons has the Brick Township faithful itching for a winning season

New Brick Township head football coach Robert Dahl will have his hands full entering the 2011 fall season.

In his first game at the helm of the Dragons on Friday night, Sept. 9 at home, Brick will be taking on the cross town – and highly successful of late – Brick Memorial Mustangs.

With three straight appearances in the Central Jersey Group IV Final, including a win in 2008, the Mustangs present quite the challenge. Coincidentally, the last Dragons win over the 'Stangs came in 2008.

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Things do not get much easier in week two when the Dragons will travel a few miles south to Lacey for a Saturday matinee matchup with the defending South Jersey Group III champions. Brick had struggled mightily the prior two years against the Lions, being shut out by a combined score of 69-0. To be fair, no team came close to slowing down the Lions last year, as they won every game by at least 20 points. In 2008, the Dragons took down the Lions with a 28-14 victory.

Following the two battles with state champions, the schedule presents a very winnable stretch of games for the Dragons.

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Back-to-back home games against Manchester and Central Regional, respectively, will round out September. Last year, the Dragons fell to the Hawks on the road 33-14, before picking up their first win of the season in week four, a 23-7 victory over the Golden Eagles of Central Regional, also on the road.

On Friday, Oct. 7th, Brick will take a ride down the Parkway to Pinelands Regional. Last year, Brick followed up their win over Central with another win, at home vs. Pinelands. The Dragons won 29-22 in overtime.

Next up will be a showdown with the Ocean Township Spartans. The Dragons fell to 2-4 with a 27-0 loss at Ocean last year, which was the start of a three game losing steak.

The Dragons will head south again, traveling down the Parkway to Barnegat on Friday, Oct. 21. Barnegat edged out a tight 21-7 win over the Dragons in Brick last year.

Another tough test will take place on Friday, Oct. 28, against Middletown South. After losing to the perennial power last year, 41-6, this game will most certainly be a measuring stick to see how far the Dragons have came since last year.

Brick will once again play their last regular season game against John F. Kennedy High School, up in Iselin. The Dragons brought home a 19-7 win last year. Brick would love to have bigger things to worry about during the Nov. 5 contest, state playoffs would be starting the next week.

The Dragons will have plenty of opportunities to make some noise in the Shore Conference, taking on three of the annual heavyweights this year.

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