Offensive Woes Lead to Dragons Loss to Cougars

Following a fortunate final three minutes in their opener against Brick Memorial, nothing went the Dragons' way on Saturday.

After an early Colts Neck goal, a sprinting Brian Murphy found David Kearns in front of the net. The freshman sailed a shot over the net and minutes later, Colts Neck extended their lead as very few bounces went the Dragons' way.

When the Dragons did gain possession, many were halted with errand passes, making things easier on the Cougars.

"We were coming off such a high in beating Brick Memorial the other day and lost a little focus," said Brick head coach Dan Rosa. "That one's on me for not having them ready to play. This week in practice we are going to go harder on improving our skills."

The Dragons, with the game still 1-0, had two chances in man-up situations and struggled with both.

"We certainly had some missed chances early," said Rosa. "Those missed opportunities can really deflate you when your trailing and it happened today."

David Kearns scored the Dragons first goal mid way through the second quarter to make the score 7-1.

Despite surrendering 12 goals, John Kirk III gave his best effort. His best play came while he was hung out to dry on a two-on-none. Kirk intercepted a cross-crease pass, and cut through two defenders upfield before dishing the ball off.

"Another fantastic game for him, he did everything you could" said Rosa, "defensively we had a very tough time picking up the cutters and we really struggled to support him."

Junior Brendan Dowd picked up two late goals.

Towards the end of the game, Brick opted to get some of their younger players some varsity experience.

"It's always more fun to do that when your winning," said Rosa. "But it is good to get them some exposure at this level."

One of the few bright spots on the day, however, was Hector Bautista notching a goal in the closing moments.

Brick will be back in action on Monday when they will take on the Marlboro Mustangs in 3:45 p.m. battle at home.