Frantic Final Minute Gives Dragons Victory Over 'Stangs

When Brick Memorial's Dan Erickson scored with four minutes remaining Thursday, giving the Mustangs a 10-7 lead, the 'Stangs had their crosstown rivals on the brink.

A dominant 'Stangs third quarter gave Memorial an 8-6 lead after the score was tied at four at halftime. Early in the fourth, a fluke Dragons' goal cut the lead to 8-7. Kurt Deldonne scored two minutes prior to Erickson and it looked as if the Mustangs would put the clamps on outscoring the Dragons 6-3 in the second half.

The Dragons, however, were not finished just yet.

With 3:36 to play, Patrick Barrow found Brendan Dowd open in the middle, who beat Mustangs goalie Drew Lamela with a quick shot. That goal gave the Dragons a shot of life, as they would win the faceoff and, in a flash, freshman David Kearns would pass from behind the net to Barrow who managed to find the back of the net despite being positioned at a tough angle.

Memorial would gain possession and kill plenty of time in the Dragons' end until an errand pass would give Brick Township the ball with 1:16 to play. Dragons senior middie Kevin Bogert would bring the ball up the field, breaking through a double team in his own end, and finding Kearns in front, who tied the score at ten with 50 seconds remaining.

"He's a great kid," said Dragons head coach Dan Rosa. "Incredibly skilled athlete and smart on the field."

After his tying goal and a mad scramble in the last 30 seconds which saw Kearns come up with possession and score with 4.3 seconds left, he could certainly be called clutch now, as well.

"Two of the starting defensemen got hurt with serious injuries," said Memorial head coach Brent Middlemiss. "It was an unfortunate situation, we had a kid getting his first varsity minutes out there, those injuries hurt us tremendously in the final moments."

Travis Barry and Kevin Kastner went down for the Mustangs, and Middlemiss believs they will be missing significant time this season.

Early in the game, Memorial dominated possession of the ball. A quality transition game gave the Mustangs an early edge, yet it did not translate to points on the scoreboard.

"We couldn't hit the net," said Middlemiss. "We did a great job of getting shots but the accuracy was poor, that is something we need to work on. Our boys did play hard and I commend them for that."

When speaking of hard work, no one stands out more than Drew Lamela, with a full extension dive to get closer to a ball than a Brick attackmen. Twenty seconds after his effort, senior Ryan Porter scored to give Memorial a 4-2 lead in the second quarter.

The Dragons recieved an excellent performence by goaltender John Kirk III, who made eight saves.

"He played as good as you could expect a goaltender to," said Rosa.

Kirk leaned heavily on junior defensemen Brian Murphy, his first option on clears all night, and had plenty of ground balls.

"We've been relying on Murphy to be our top sideline defender and even jump into the play at times," said Rosa. "Justin Sieburt did a great job too, as our crease clearer."

For Brick Memorial, they will look to regroup as they are off for a few days before they travel to Barnegat for a 3:45 p.m. game on Monday.

Brick Township has a 2 p.m. match up on Saturday, as they will hit the road to take on Colts Neck.