Shore Sports Networks 2016 MCT CBA vs RBC Championship

May 11, 2016 Volume-VIII Issue-9

The first thing fans, players, coaches and parents want to know after the big game is always, � � Is this going to be on

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2016 Boys Lacrosse 5/10/16 Top 10

By Bob Badders – Senior Staff Writer

W

ith the Shore Conference Tournament in full swing there has been more than enough time for teams to establish themselves and prove exactly where they belong in the conference's hierarchy.

There are still some big games to play that will decide the SCT championship, plus the state tournament is right around the corner, but there has been enough results to make the picture more clear than ever.

Rumson-Fair Haven remains at the top and the favorite to take home the SCT championship, while Manasquan remains No. 2. Rumson, Manasquan and undefeated Southern, which comes in at No. 3, have not lost within the conference this season. Look out for CBA, which seems to be peaking at just the right time. Ocean has one loss and

remains dangerous with Joey Appio and Erik Rant leading a high-octane offense.

Wall, Freehold Township and Shore each advanced to the SCT quarterfinals, so the top eight looks good. The question is what to do with No. 9 and No. 10. Howell has lost two of its last three while Toms River North is on a three-game losing streak. Jackson Liberty, meanwhile, fell in overtime to Shore for its first loss in eight games.

See how it all shakes out in the latest Shore Sports Network Top 10.

1 RUMSON-FAIR HAVEN

4 CBA .

.

(12-3, 7-0 B North)

Rumson Jr., Defenseman Emmett Jennings

The Bulldogs pushed their winning streak to six games with a 15-4 win over Holmdel, a 7-4 victory over St. Peter's Prep and a 16-2 win over Point Boro in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament. Rumson is the top seed in the SCT and looking to reach the championship game for the eighth consecutive year.

2 (12-3, Manasquan 5-0 B South)

CBA Jr., Attack Nick Casner

5 (12-1, Ocean 7-1 B North)

.

Manasquan Jr. Attack Joe Tonkovich

The Warriors fell to Ridge, 14-8, in a tough nonconference game on the road, but bounced back to trounce Lacey, 23-8, in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament. Junior attackman Jarrett Birch went bonkers with 10 goals in that win as Manasquan blew open a game that was surprisingly just a 9-6 lead for the Warriors' at halftime. Manasquan received the No. 2 seed for the Shore Conference Tournament where it will attempt to reach the final for the second time and first since the SCT's inaugural year in 2005.

.

Ocean Sr, Midfielder Eric Rant

3 Southern (11-0, 6-0 A South) Southern Sr. Attack Nick Simonelli

The Spartans were seeded fifth in the Shore Conference Tournament and took care of Brick Memorial, 18-10, in the first round to reach the quarterfinals for the second straight season. Senior attackman Joey Appio had seven more assists and is closing in on the state record for career assists. He entered Tuesday with 211 assists and the record is 217 by Glen Ridge's Alex Lopes.

6 (12-2, Wall 5-1 B South) .

.

Still undefeated are the Rams, who defeated Red Bank Catholic, 16-5, in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament in their only game of the week. They are the No. 3 seed and the defending SCT champions. Southern has reached the SCT final in each of the last three seasons. It seems like everyone is waiting for the Rams to slip up, but all they do is keep winning.

(10-5, 7-0 A North)

The Colts may have three losses, but it's hard to penalize them too much when the combined records of the teams that beat them is 20-3. CBA has a loss to St. Joseph (Metuchen) as well defeats against Rumson and Manasquan, the top two teams in the SSN Top 10. They are on a three-game winning streak since losing 10-3 to Rumson, however, with wins over Peddie, Howell and Middletown North. A large slate of games awaits this week with contests versus Colts Neck, Don Bosco Prep, Marlboro and Neptune.

Wall Sr. Attack Mike Steppe

This was a tough call between the Crimson Knights and Freehold Township. The Shore Conference Tournament seeding committee had Freehold Township sixth and Wall seventh, but since I had the Knights sixth last week and they won their only game I'm not dropping them. Wall downed Howell 13-6 in the first round of the SCT with senior attackman Mike Steppe leading the way with six goals.

See

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9 Jackson Lib. (10-5, 4-2 B South)

7(10-4, Freehold Twp 5-2 A North)

.

.

The aforementioned Patriots didn't play well in a 14-4 loss to CBA, but that was more about CBA putting forth its most complete game of the season. Freehold Township has won seven of eight since a 3-2 start to the season, so the team has been playing very well as of late. Seeded sixth in the Shore Conference Tournament, the Pats got an overtime goal

by Mike Colicchia to escape with a 9-8 win over 11th-seeded Toms River North in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament. They will look to make it consecutive years with appearances in the SCT semifinals.

8 Shore (11-4, 6-2 B North)

Jackson Liberty Sr. Matt Ferullo

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Shore Sr. Midfielder Doug Goldsmith

The Goldsmith connection finished off a fantastic, back-and-forth game against Jackson Liberty in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament as senior midfielder Doug Goldsmith found freshman brother Gil Goldsmith for the overtime game-winning goal in a thrilling 12-11 win. It is the first SCT win for Shore in program history.

A four-game losing streak bounced the Lions from the rankings back in mid April, but after winning seven of their last eight games they have returned. Liberty had a win over St. Rose, 13-3, to close out its division schedule before falling to Shore, 12-11 in overtime, in the 8-9 matchups in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament. Senior Tyler Kalmowitz had three goals, including the game-tying goal with 6.9 seconds left to force overtime. The Lions will now turn their attention to the South Jersey Group III playoffs.

10 Howell (8-6, 4-2 A North) .

Seeded 10th in the Shore Conference Tournament, the Rebels fell to Wall, 13-6, in the opening round. They will try to rebound when they close out their division schedule against rival Colts Neck before the start of the South Jersey Group IV playoffs..

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The Shore Conference Tournament Final Four is set

By Bob Badders – Senior Staff Writer

Southern is the defending champion and won its first SCT title and became the first Ocean County team to win the SCT when it defeated Rumson, 16-6, in last season’s championship. Rumson has won a record five SCT titles and is looking to reach the final for the eighth consecutive year. CBA has four titles to its credit with the last coming in 2009. Manasquan is making it second straight appearance in the SCT semifinals, and although the Warriors have yet to win a title, the Shore’s oldest program did reach the inaugural final in 2005.

The semifinal games take place on Thursday May 12 on the turf field at Long Branch High School. Rumson, which is the No. 1 seed, takes on fourth-seeded CBA at 4 p.m. Second-seeded Manasquan will play third-seeded Southern following the conclusion of the first semifinal. The Shore Conference Tournament championship game will be played at 6 p.m. on Monday May 16 at Long Branch High School.

With all that said, there may be no hotter team right now than CBA. The Colts were up and down most of the season, but their only conference losses are to Rumson and Manasquan. They’ve really put it together over the past four games, including a big win over Freehold Township to clinch the Class A North division title. They beat St. John Vianney 14-2 in the first round of the SCT before pulling away from Ocean in the quarterfinals with eight unanswered goals in the second half to win 13-5.

CBA has a lot of versatile players on offense, and that unit is playing the best it has all season with crisp ball movement and quick thinking.

Junior Nick Casner leads the attackmen while senior captain John Salcedo runs things from the midfield. What’s been very impressive is CBA’s ability to not miss a beat after an injury to standout sophomore attackman Michael Carroll. The Colts have used senior Cologialo Muscara and freshman Connor Macrae in his place and both have played very well. Senior attackman Shay Walczak is also having a great season, while midfielders Justin Shea-Katz, Shane McGuiness and Ryan Madalone have stepped up their games.

The Colts’ face-off team has made a big impact as of late with senior Chris Hayes as the face-off middie and seniors Andrew Rooney and Gordon Paul coming off the wings. In the semifinal win against Ocean the Colts had the ball for neary the entire second half.

Defensively, seniors Trevor Einwechter and Gordon Paul, along with juniors Jack Coury, Jack Kroken and Richie Bartlewitz anchor the back end in front of junior goalie Ryan McGuiness.

The CBA team Rumson sees Thursday will be much different than the one it defeated 10-3 back on April 12. Rumson has also hit its stride with seven straight wins heading into the semifinals, so it could be a classic matchup between two Shore Conference powers with a trip to the final on the line.

1-Rumson-Fair Haven (13-3) vs. 4-CBA (11-5)

2-Manasquan (13-3) vs.

With Rumson-Fair Haven

defeating Shore, Manasquan downing Wall, Southern edging Freehold Township and Christian Brothers Academy rallying past Ocean, the 2016 SCT will feature the top four seeds in the semifinals. All are familiar faces.

Semifinal No.1:

One of the Shore Conference’s oldest and best lacrosse rivalries once again takes center stage as the tournament favorite Bulldogs meet the surging Colts.

Rumson is the standard-bearer in the Shore Conference and has reached the Shore Conference Tournament final in nine of the 11 seasons the tournament has existed. The Bulldogs’ bid for a fifth consecutive SCT title was dashed by Southern last year, but Rumson responded by winning the NJSIAA Group I title to become the first Shore Conference team to win a state championship. The Bulldogs returned a major chunk of that team, so it’s no surprise they are once again within two wins of a conference crown.

The Bulldogs are solid from top to bottom with senior attackman Robbie Garavente leading the way on offense. He and linemates, fellow seniors Henry Sillen and Griffin Schultz, have great chemistry from years playing together and drive Rumson in the offensive zone.

Juniors Charlie Curran and Colin Pavluk, plus sophomore Wyatt Feinberg, give Rumson good depth up top.

Junior Bryan Hess is Rumson’s top offensive midfielder, headlining a group that includes senior Matt Waters and juniors Ryan Tuorto and Alex Werner. Senior middie Lachlan Hull is a defensive specialist who gets overlooked, but is a major part of Rumson’s success. The same goes for sophomore Peter Lucas, who sees important minutes in the defensive end every game. Senior face-off specialist Butch Clark has won 65 percent of draws this season, and when he is consistently giving Rumson possession the Bulldogs are that much more difficult to deal with.

Defensively, Rumson is a standout unit with junior Emmett Jennings and senior Ian Clarke leading the way in front of senior goalie Kyle Knapp. When they are on they can shut down the best offenses around. Junior Dan Maloney, sophomore Stephen Edler and freshman Thomas Bavuso comprise the rest of the Bulldogs defense.

Rumson also plays a challenging nonconference schedule, owns conference wins over CBA, Ocean and Shore and has the pedigree in championship situations. The Bulldogs are the heavy favorite for a reason.

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Semifinal No. 2:

are several players logging important minutes this season who weren’t starters last season, but have been able to jump right in and keep the program humming along.

Senior attackman Nick Simonelli leads the way on offense with 70 points, and just recorded his 100th career assist in a 9-6 win over Freehold Township in the SCT quarterfinals. Junior Kyle Mulrane joins him on the top attack line with freshman Nick Fontana, sophomore Ryan McWhorter and junior Dylan Smith all seeing plenty of action.

Will Johnson leads the midfielders in scoring, while senior brothers James and Jon Manzo are indispensable players all over the field.

Junior defensive middie Giancarlo Disporto is a valuable asset, as well.

The Rams have an experienced defense that has been the backbone of the team all season. Senior defensemen Evan Henken, Anthony Triola, J.T. Villani and John Vannodsall, senior LSM Gordie Vonschmidt and sophomore defenseman Luke Gerhardt comprise a unit that has allowed just 4.8 goals per game and hasn’t surrendered more than eight goals in any game this season.

Another player with pressure to produce was junior goalie Tristen Farina. He had big shoes to fill in taking over for four-year starter Brendan Lefanto, but has done a marvelous job with 139 saves and a save percentage over 70 percent. He set a school record with 25 saves in the quarterfinal win over Freehold Township.

Everyone figured Manasquan was going to be a team to be reckoned with this season, and the Warriors haven’t disappointed.

Head coach Sean Cunningham has a young and talented set of players at every position, and the Warriors have been an offensive force in scoring 13.9 goals per game. Junior attackman Jarrett Birch and his brother, freshman attackman Canyon Birch, are the top two point getters, but the list of offensive weapons doesn’t end there.

Junior attackman Joe Tonkovich, junior midfielder’s Pat Felstedt, John Moran and Devan Carroll, and freshman midfielder James Pendergist 3-Southern (12-0) are all dangerous players that have to be accounted for. Senior middies Paul Krueger and Peter Degnan are versatile and valuable players in the midfield, as well.

Junior face-off specialist Matt Thermann has burst onto the scene as one of the Shore Conference’s top FOGOs. When he is on and giving Manasquan’s offense a ton of possessions its usually a long day for the opposing team.

Defensively, Manasquan has a fantastic group led by one of the conference’s top defenseman in junior Kyle LeBlanc.

Juniors Edmund Mallett, Chip Sarnasi and Tom Meyer, along with senior Mike LaPoint and highly-touted freshman Jack Fabean give the Warriors a deep defense corps.

In goal the Warriors have junior Tom Pollock as well as freshman Mike LaPoint, who gets rave reviews from just about everyone. Simply put, Manasquan is loaded.

Manasquan will be looking for a bit of revenge after losing in the semifinals last season, while Southern will be hellbent on giving itself a chance to defend its SCT Manasquan’s Jr. Jarrett Birch title in what should be a fantastic second game of Thursday’s double-header.

Last season Manasquan was a young team going up against a juggernaut in Southern, but the Warriors more than held their own before falling 8-4 in the semifinals to the eventual champion Rams. This season Manasquan has made the jump to become one of the elite teams in the Shore. Southern graduated a program-defining senior class, but the Rams haven’t missed a beat and remain the Shore Conference’s only undefeated team. This makes for a very intriguing matchup.

The offensive numbers and experience Southern lost to graduation are astounding, including current University of Hartford star freshman Dylan Jinks and his 421 career points. Contrary to popular belief, the cupboard wasn’t bare for the Rams coming into this season. The sending district has done a great job building a feeder program and putting a solid foundation in place, and the dividends have paid off this season.

One thing head coach John Pampalone has always done a great job of is getting younger players into games to gain experience. Two of Southern’s top three scorers are juniors, along with its starting goalie.

The Rams’ face-off middie, Anthony Firmani, is a sophomore. There

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By Matt Manley – Senior Staff Writer

ITH THE PROBABLE STARTERS IN THE MONMOUTH COUNTY TOURNAMENT FINAL BETWEEN TOP SEEDED CHRISTIAN BROTHERS ACADEMY AND NO. 2 RED BANK CATHOLIC HAVE BOTH PITCHED IN A SIMILAR SPOT BEFORE WITH DIFFERENT RESULTS.

final during his record-setting CBA career. He won the first of those four championship games in the Monmouth County Tournament final as a sophomore on three days rest and would be doing the same if he does indeed take the ball on Wednesday night June 11th.

On the other side, there is RBC senior right-hander John Poccia. Last year, Poccia caught fire at the end of the year and helped carry the Caseys to the Shore Conference Tournament championship game, where he again took the ball against CBA. Poccia allowed three earned runs in a complete-game effort, but CBA shut down RBC’s bats in a 4-0 Colts win.

First, there is Luca Dalatri, who has won two Monmouth C o u n t y championship games, a Shore Conference Tournament final and an NJSIAA N o n Public A

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While Wednesday might provide a chance at redemption for Poccia, it’s even more of an opportunity for the returning group of Caseys hitters to deliver in a championship setting.

Last year, Kenny Campbell and Joe Gargana silenced the potent RBC lineup in a combined shutout in that SCT final.

Although CBA enters Wednesday as the top seed and the two-time defending MCT champion, RBC is the Shore’s hottest team and also the one with its best record. The Caseys won their 13th straight game on Monday night and are a Shore-best 181 overall and 13-0 in the Class B North division, which they have already clinched.

Red Bank Catholic’s success stems from its balance, both in its

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lineup and in its equal reliance on pitching, defense and hitting.

Eight of its nine starting position players are hitting above .300 and leadoff hitter E v a n Madigan is hitting .492 even after going 0-for-3 on Tuesday.

Catcher Doug Facendo, second baseman Aaron Ahn and third baseman Anthony DeRosa have anchored the middle of the order behind Madigan.

Ahn is hitting a shade under .400 with a team-best four home runs while Facendo is hitting .465 with nine doubles and a home run. DeRosa leads the team with 17 RBI and has also slugged two home runs.

Poccia, meanwhile, has led a pitching staff that has attacked the strike zone. The senior righthander has walked only seven in 41 2/3 innings while striking out 31 and pitching to a 1.01 ERA. As a staff, the Caseys have walked 25 in 122 innings with 95 strikeouts.

Senior Jack Ipsen has settled into the team’s closer role and will be ready to back up Poccia on Wednesday.

The right-handed side-armer has struck out 19 and walked four in 19 innings while posting a 1.10 ERA.

RBC will have to be on its game should it face Dalatri, who pitched a nine-inning complete game against the Caseys in the 2014 Shore Conference Tournament semifinals in a 2-1 CBA win. That was just one of Dalatri’s 25 consecutive wins without a loss since the beginning of his sophomore season.

This year, Dalatri has been at his most dominant. In 34 innings, the senior right-hander has allowed one run (0.21 ERA) and struck out 63 while walking only two to go along with 15 hits.

Photos: M a r k B r o w n

b51photography.com

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Rose, Ciervo Power Toms River North to Win Over Groome, Barnegat

By Matt Manley – Senior Staff Writer

The Toms River North

baseball team had probably done enough on offense through four innings to beat Barnegat and its left-handed ace Jason Groome during Saturday’s Ocean County Tournament semifinal.

Instead of sitting on two early unearned runs and protecting the lead against one of the top prospects in the upcoming MLB Draft, the fourth-seeded Mariners kicked down the door with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to chase Groome and stun No. 8 Barnegat, 7-1. Toms River North moves on to play the winner of the other semifinal between Brick and Toms River South at a date, time and site to be determined.

“I thought we’d score six today, so I guess they exceeded my expectations,” Toms River North coach Andy Pagano said. “We have a really good hitting team and they had all week to prepare for this game. I really like where they’re at mentally and I thought they’d be up for the challenge.

“Until you step in there against a guy like Groome, though, you just don’t know. But I’ll tell you what: he’s as advertised. His stuff is filthy. But we made him work and made him pay for a couple of mistakes.”

Groome’s 2-2 changeup missed just high and after Feigin fouled off a 3-2 fastball, he laid off a low fastball to work a two-out walk and give Rose a chance to hit with a runner in scoring position.

commanding 6-1 lead.

“I just wanted to pick Rose up,” Ciervo said. “He’s been walking a lot, getting hit by pitches and everyone is always telling me, ‘Pick your friend up.’ It was a first pitch fastball and I just turned on it.

“It felt great, honestly. Turning on the ball like that, you feel it right away. Just looking at it, I saw it had the height and the adrenaline took over from there. It felt great.”

Most opponents have pitched around Rose whenever possible – as evidenced by his 14 walks and eight hit-by-pitches coming into the game – but the Oklahoma State was afforded a chance to swing the bat Saturday both because of the situation and because Groome has no need to pitch around any high school hitter.

Toms River North would add one more unearned run in the inning before Groome was lifted following the error that led to it.

“I didn’t think we’d get seven,” Rose said. “I thought we’d battle him and scrap for a run or two and whoever scored first was going to win the game.”

Although the game spiraled out of control for the Vanderbilt commit and No. 3 player on Baseball America’s latest list In his first at-bat, Rose of top MLB Draft Prospects, Groome was reached on a single that one pitch away from escaping the fifth was a towering fly ball to without allowing a run. After hitting center right that Barnegat right T R N o r t h ’s J o e y R o s e fielder David Cordoma on the shoulder fielder Anthony Lani with one out, he struck out shortstop and could not track. He later leadoff hitter Mike Nyisztor with a curveball and jumped ahead of struck out on a 2-2 changeup from Groome, a pitch that Rose called left fielder Austin Feigin 1-2 in the count. a “Big League changeup.”

In his final at-bat, Rose took advantage of a get-me-over curveball from Groome and drilled his 12th extra-base hit of the season to chase in two runs. Rose now has seven home runs and five doubled on the season and the RBI were Nos. 27 and 28.

Seniors Joey Rose and Jeff Ciervo – the Nos. 3 and 4 hitters in a potent Toms River North lineup that entered Saturday hitting .370 as a team – dealt the two knockout blows against Groome in the fifth. With two out in the inning, Rose waited back on a first-pitch curveball from Groome and launched it to the fence in right-center field for a two-run double that gave Toms River North a 4-1 lead.

“I knew he was going to come after me because me and him were the main matchup today,” Rose said. “I know he’s not going to back down from the challenge and facing him was a challenge I was looking forward to.”

“I just got my foot down early and tried to see the spin on the ball,” Rose said. “I wasn’t trying to pull the ball because I know he has a lot of life on his pitches.

“I was thinking about the fastball because he wasn’t getting it over on the couple pitches before that and I thought he would try to find it. I just got my foot down, I saw the curveball and I put a good bat on it.”

With the crowd surrounding Ryan Field still buzzing, Ciervo jumped on the very next pitch from Groome and belted a two-run home run over the left field fence to give the Mariners a

Barnegat senior Jason Groome

Ciervo’s home run was his first of the season and the first Groome has allowed as a high school pitcher. Groome overpowered Ciervo in his first two at-bats, needing only six pitches to strike him out twice. In his Ciervo’s second at-bat, Groome blew three straight fastballs by the Toms River North right fielder, including a game-high 95-mile-per-hour heater.

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“My first two at-bats, I didn’t have a good approach,” Ciervo said. “He was just throwing fastballs by me right down the middle.”

Groome then tried to sneak a fastball past Ciervo on the inner half and Ciervo turned on it and got his barrel to the ball.

Despite enduring the rockiest outing of his high school career, Groome still showed the full arsenal that has him in the mix to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. His fastball topped out at 95 while it sat in the 91-93 mile-per-hour range and he threw it more often than in his previous start against Pinelands last Saturday. He also featured his full three-pitch mix against Rose, who is also likely to be draft in June in the wake of his huge senior season.

In total, Groome allowed four earned runs on six hits in his 4 2/3 innings of work while walking three, hitting a batter and striking out nine. He recorded eight of the first nine outs via the strikeout, but faced more contact in his final two frames as his velocity settled into the 89-91 mile-per-hour range. Groome finished with 87 pitches, 61 of which were for strikes.

“They were just hitting the ball,” Groome said. “I can’t do anything about it. This is probably the most hits I’ve given up that I can remember. I thought I handled it pretty good, but when they’re putting the ball in play, you just hope you get outs and that didn’t happen today.”

To m s R i v e r N o r t h s e n i o r J e f f C i e r v o

In the fifth, it was Sasso’s turn to evade trouble.

Diefenbach led the inning off with a single, then went to third on a hit-and-run single by senior catcher Max Ritner, who later moved up to second on a wild pitch with none out. Sasso responded by striking out the next two batters and after issuing a walk to Lani, struck out one more to escape with Toms River North still leading, 2-1.

Groome was the second Division I pitcher against whom Toms River North scored seven runs this season. The Mariners put up seven runs on Monroe right-hander and North Carolina commit Robbie Peto in a 8-5 win over the Falcons on April 17.

With the confidence from having hit Peto and an entire rained-out week to prepare specifically for Groome, the Mariners came in prepared for another challenge.

“We were in the gym all week and we just turned up the Jugs Machine, moved it up 20 feet and worked on getting the barrel to the ball,” Ciervo said.

“Mullins got in some tough situations and got himself out of them,” Rose said. “We told ourselves, ‘We’ve got to get this kid a couple of runs.'”

Toms River North jumped out to a 2-0 firstinning lead when Nyisztor drew a walk, Rose hit his sky-high single and both advanced on a passed ball. Groome struck out Ciervo before junior Jared Bellissimo hit a hard ground ball to second base that junior Justin Diefenbach could not handle, which allowed both Nyisztor and Rose to score.

Rain over the past week disrupted the tournament schedule, which leaves the scheduling of the final two games of the tournament uncertain. Toms River South will host Brick in the other semifinal, but the Indians have a game scheduled on each of the first four days of the upcoming week. Brick is scheduled to play on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and the Monday game is at Toms River South at 7 p.m.

Sasso struck out six in three scoreless innings to save the win for Mullins, who allowed one unearned run on three hits.

“The message was just to get the barrel to the ball,” Pagano said. “When you’re a strong kid and the ball is coming in that hard, all you need to do is make solid contact. I don’t know what his fastball got up to today but it looked good. That’s a guy who could be pitching in the Major Leagues someday and I told the guys, ‘You could be telling your kids about facing him one day.'”

T R N o r t h ’s J o e y R o s e

The OCT final was originally scheduled for either Tuesday or Thursday depending on the schedules of the teams involved, but the strong possibility remains that the final will be pushed back if Brick and Toms River South can’t find a time to play before Friday, when both teams have openings on their respective schedules.

Barnegat had three opportunities to tie the game or take the lead but junior starter Brendan Mullins and sophomore reliever Anthony Sasso squashed both threats. Barnegat junior shortstop Aaron McLaughlin – who relieved Groome on the mound – led the game off with a double to left field on the first pitch and moved to third on a sacrifice by senior Collin O’Conner, but was stranded their after Mullins notched a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.

An error, a single by O’Conner and a walk by senior Jared Kacso loaded the bases with one out in the Barnegat third and Diefenbach delivered and RBI single to get the Bengals on the board.

Mullins then induced a fielder’s choice ground out to Rose at third and retired Nik Caputo on a comebacker to end the threat.

Whichever team emerges from the other semifinal and whenever they do so will face a Toms River North team that has won six straight and is now the second-highest scoring team in the Shore Conference on a per-game basis, behind only St. Rose. Both, however, have defeated Toms River North this season.

“We had to rally around each other at the start of the year and get the chemistry going,” Ciervo said. “We’ve really been together as a team the last few weeks and we’re starting to heat up now.”

T R N o r t h ’s J o e y R o s e

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The Bengals again threatened Mullins in the fourth, with runners reaching the corners with one out. McLaughlin then popped out to second base and after a walk to O’Conner, Mullins coaxed Kacso into an inning-ending fielder’s choice groundout to Nyisztor at shortstop.

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Matt Manley www.shoresportsnetwork.com

Photos: M a r k B r o w n b51photography.com / 5/11/16

SHORESPORTSNETWORK.COM

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Green Dragon, Ranger & Oehme Strong

By Kevin Williams – Director Shore Sports Network

Brian Oehme was a

pretty good basketball player at Brick Township High School, a 6’4 forward who started for three seasons and graduated last June.

His basketball talents and academic achievements landed him at Drew University where he appeared in 17 games this past season, coming off the bench to hit 18 3-pointers for the Rangers. With three of the team’s four leading scorers graduating it would appear that Oehme would have a great opportunity to contribute even more next year but there is something blocking his immediate basketball future: cancer.

growing costs associated with his fight against cancer. The shirts say “Oehme Strong” on the front with his number 33 on the back. It would be great to see other Shore Conference schools jump on the bandwagon to support the effort and they can do so by reaching out to coach Mike Gawronski at mgawronski@brickschools.org.

You can also see a picture of the shirts on their @brickbasketball Twitter page.

Brian has a challenge that’s greater than any he has faced on the basketball court and who Brian Oehme could blame him from being down and out.

Instead he’s facing it head on and wants to spread the word about testicular cancer which is the most common form of cancer for men between the ages of 15-35.

Every year approximately 8500 men are diagnosed with the disease.

Brian has been diagnosed with stage two testicular cancer which has moved onto the lymph nodes under his liver. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy and right now the prognosis is a bit uncertain but he and his family, including his parents George & Kathy are staying strong and positive.

Oehme has received a lot of support from his alma mater as Brick Township High School has rallied around and behind him. The school and the Green Dragons basketball program are selling tee shirts and bracelets to help with the

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With the help of his doctors along with family, friends and teammates #33 will be shooting and making 3’s again in the future.

Support Brian Oehme and come buy a t-shirt. $ 1 0 a s h i r t . $ 2 a b r a c e l e t . S e e M r. Ly n c h o r M r. G a w r o n s k i ! # O e h m e s t r o n g

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