LINCROFT – Brookdale men’s lacrosse came back from a 138 deficit after three quarters of play against longtime rival Delaware Technical Community College only to come up a goal short Sunday at Brookdale. The Jersey Blues (2-4) had possession and a chance to tie it with 42 seconds remaining on the game clock, but their furious rally ultimately stalled in the closing seconds.
With the score 14-12 and under a minute to play, 6-foot6 freshman attacker Jake Deitrich (Newton H.S.) found freshman attacker T.J. Coleman (St. John Vianney H.S.) all alone about 10 feet inside the restraining line and 50 feet directly in front of the goal. Coleman didn’t hesitate, whistling a shot past Delaware Tech goalie Charles Yeagar, to pull the Blues back to within one with a crucial faceoff for the final possession coming up.
Sophomore Dom Parente (Monroe Twp. H.S.) came through picking up a ground ball off the faceoff with 32 seconds remaining and passed it to freshman midfielder Joe Collins (Monroe Twp. H.S.) behind the net. Collins spun and tried to make a play to sophomore Dan Bury (Brick Memorial H.S.) but a Hawk defender knocked the ball loose before a body check penalty on the Blues in front of the goal with 2.9 seconds left essentially ended it.
“We spotted them five goals coming into the third and that was probably our biggest mistake,” Brookdale coach Steve Heller said. “We knew the way we wanted to attack their defense on our initial possession. We knew if we could get our middies coming across the top, which is what happened, they would slide up the field early and Dan Bury was wide open in the back corner. If he catches that he walks right in one-on-one with the goalie. Their defenseman did a nice job sticking his stick out there and getting that knock down. If that doesn’t happen, I’m pretty confident we tie it up right there.”
The game itself was pretty much a dead-even affair that had six lead changes and seven ties with 8:09 still remaining in the third quarter. That’s when Del Tec Terry (9-4) ranked No.10 nationally – seized control with a 5-0 run to end the third quarter up 13-8.
Brookdale looked shellshocked and easily could’ve folded the tent, but after a brief huddle with Heller in between quarters, the Blues came on like gangbusters at the start of the fourth.
“My talk to them was just challenging them,” Heller said. “Everybody’s going to get a run; we talked about it before the game and at halftime. Lacrosse is a game of runs; you just got to be able to weather the storm. They got theirs; we shut it of f pretty good. We got ours but we just ran out of time.”
A minute and eleven seconds into the fourth quarter, Collins got the Blues back on the board off a nice feed from Deitrich. Then, 12 seconds later freshman long stick Jack Kelly (Shore Regional H.S.) scooped up a ground ball of f the ensuing faceoff, rushed he goal area and planted one from about 10-yards out for his first goal as a Brookdale player.
In a blink of an eye the Blues were now back to within three goals, but the Hawks momentarily slowed down the Blues comeback attempt scoring one of their own at 9:09 to go back up by four. But 50 seconds later Collins spotted Bury camped out just to the left of the goalie and Bury easily flicked it past Yeagar.
After struggling with winning face-offs much of the game, including three straight that directly resulted in goals during the Hawks run, the Blues were now winning them and controlling possession in the attacking zone; an area of the game in which Heller feels his team needs to be more consistent.
“The face-off is an area that we always focus on,” Heller said. “We have three things we got to win that we talk about every day. We got to win the ball at the X, the ground balls on the face-off and then we want to possess it on offense.”
Now down by three with 8:20 remaining, the Blues continued to pressure the Hawks defense when at 5:40 Bur y picked a loose ball about 15 feet to the left of the goalie and fired home his 15th goal of the season to creep back to within two, 14-12 before Coleman’s goal with 42 seconds left in the game.
The Blues had their chances and could’ve won the game had some of the bounces gone the other way. But all things considered, it was a valiant comeback attempt and should provide a high level of inspiration moving for ward.
“We had them on their heels the whole fourth quarter,” Heller said. “If we played a better third quarter it’s a different outcome. Today we put together a good three quarters worth of play. The guys will continue to get better as our conditioning gets better; we’ve only had six outdoor practices and three games cancelled because of the weather. We know at the end of the day that there’s two games in April that count and that’s the region tournaments. Everything we do, everything we preach is focused on winning those two games and getting into the national tournament.”
Brookdale is the five-time defending NJCAA Regions XIX champion.
Sophomore Andrew Dooley and Bur y each had three goals, with Bury adding an assist. Dooley’s second goal gave him a team-leading 19 goals on the season and Bur y’s three gave him 15. Collins (10 goals, 11 assists) finished with two goals and two assists while freshman Kevin Loveland (Colts Neck H.S.) added two goals. Coleman (14 goals), Kelly and sophomore Ben Talcott (Howell H.S.) each contributed a goal.
– By Mike Ready
