2015 Shore Conference Lacrosse Tournament Preview
Follow Bob Badders on Twitter for scores and news from around the Shore.
Seventeen teams, five days of games, one ultimate champion.
The 2015 Shore Conference Boys Lacrosse Tournament gets underway today with the play-in game between Middletown North and Brick, and continues with the full slate of first round games on Tuesday. The SCT continues with the quarterfinals on Thursday before Saturday’s semifinal games at noon and 2:30 p.m. at Toms River East. The championship game is at 4 p.m. on May 12 at Monmouth University.
The biggest storyline for this season’s tournament is whether top-ranked Southern can win the title in what would be its third straight finals appearance to become the first Ocean County team to win the SCT. At the same time, Rumson-Fair Haven is gunning to extend its record SCT winning streak to five. The Bulldogs have defeated Southern in each of the last two SCT finals, including last season’s 17-10 victory for its fourth straight title.
The underlying theme is an extension of what has been the biggest revelation during the regular season. It’s mostly been a wide-open season with a lot of ‘team A beat B but lost to team C’ and so on scenarios. This is probably the deepest field ever in the tournament, which is an example of how lacrosse is growing in the conference. If there was ever a season to expect plenty of upsets, this has to be it.
The only game today is the play-in/preliminary-round game between 17th-seeded Middletown North and 16th-seeded Brick. Middletown North qualified for the tournament in just its second season as a varsity program and first season of eligibility. This will be the second meeting of the season between the Lions and Dragons. Brick won the first game, 7-2, back on April 2. The winner of that game gets the unenviable task of traveling south to Manahawkin to take on top-seeded Southern on Tuesday. Brick’s most recent game was against Southern, a 17-1 loss.
There are a couple of juicy first-round matchups scheduled for Tuesday with eighth-seeded Ocean hosting ninth-seeded Toms River North, and 7th-seeded Red Bank Catholic taking on 10th-seeded Barnegat.
Ocean has enjoyed a breakout season in building a 9-1 record that included opening the season 5-0. The Spartans’ only loss is to second-seeded Rumson, and they own wins over Barnegat and St. John Vianney. Ocean has four players with at least 20 goals, led by junior midfielder Erik Rant with 39. Junior attackman Joey Appio leads the team in points with 21 goals and 41 assists. Seniors Zack Karasic and Christian Goslin each have 20 goals on the season.
Ocean also has one of the best defenders in the Shore in senior long-stick midfielder Steven Graziano, who leads the team with 95 ground balls. Ocean is also solid in the face-off circle with junior Alex Bravo winning 74 percent of draws and in goal with sophomore David Walk stopping 61 percent of shots on goal.
Toms River North, meanwhile, brings an 8-2 record into Tuesday’s matchup. The Mariners lost to Shore 7-6 back on April 1 before rattling off seven straight wins. Among those were victories over St. John Vianney, Lacey and Brick. Their winning streak came to an end at the hands of Southern this past Friday with an 11-4 loss in the Class A South title game. Toms River North is a solid group up and down the lineup with attackmen Ryan Clancy and Andrew Lombardi, midfielders Tyler Foss, Mike Hoy, Tom Butz and Joy Vitiello, defenseman Alex Scherer and goalie Austin Bennett leading the way.
It’s a tough road for whichever team emerges victorious, however, because they will almost certainly have to face top-seeded Southern in the quarterfinals.
Red Bank Catholic will enter Tuesday with a 9-3 record and having lost only to teams ranked in the Shore Sports Network Top 10 - Manasquan, Freehold Township and Rumson. The Caseys are a dangerous team under first-year head coach Dave Erdman with senior attackman Tim Barile, junior midfielder Brett Habich and senior defenseman Matt Pieringer leading the way. The Caseys also have solid goaltending in Matt Benjamin and secondary scoring from Julian Esposito, James Mele and Alec Mintz.
Barnegat will be in the same position it was last season as the No. 10 seed, and last year the Bengals went on the road and upset seventh-seeded Wall. They are led by midfielders Ricky Gerena and J.J. McKenna, who lead the team in points and goals, respectively. Gerena has 15 goals and 12 assists while McKenna has a team-best 23 goals.
Other first-round games include 12th-seeded Jackson Liberty heading to fifth-seeded Howell. The teams met earlier this season with Howell winning 11-4 on March 31. The Lions have picked up two huge wins recently in beating rival Jackson Memorial and Barnegat, while the Rebels were cruising along before falling to rival Freehold Township last week. Howell also owns a huge win over CBA and victories over Colts Neck and Middletown North.
Thirteenth-seeded St. John Vianney travels to face fourth-seeded Manasquan. St. John Vianney is coached by Mike Dowd, who was the longtime coach for the Warriors through 2009. Manasquan is and up-and-coming group that starts nine sophomores. To me the Warriors are the x-factor in the tournament because of where they are seeded and the fact that they look like they can play with anyone in the tournament. St. John Vianney has been in pretty much every game this season despite a 7-7 record, however, so Manasquan will be tested.
Rumson hosts 15th-seeded Colts Neck in a rematch of one of last season’s SCT semifinals, and the Bulldogs are again the heavy favorite. Third-seeded CBA takes on 14th-seeded Wall and 11th-seeded Lacey heads to face red-hot Freehold Township, the No. 6 seed.
Freehold Township is also a team to watch because of how well it has played lately and because of where it is seeded. Since an 11-4 loss to CBA on April 11, the Patriots have won seven of eight games with their only defeat coming to Southern. They are coming together at the right time, and looked fantastic in a 9-2 win over Howell last week that forced a three-way tie for the Class A North division title. If the Patriots get past Lacey they will likely get their rematch against CBA with a spot in the semifinals on the line.
From the early rounds to the championship game, the 2015 Shore Conference Tournament has a chance to be great. The final four could feature any number of teams, and no matter which team wins it, history will be made in some form. Will Southern, which beat Rumson for the first time ever earlier this season, get over the mountain in the SCT? Can Rumson, which has had its ups and downs in playing a brutal schedule, win an unprecedented fifth straight title? Or will another team rise up and take the title, which other than CBA or Manasquan, would the first in program history.
Whatever the answers to those questions turn out to be, it’s going to be fun and interesting to watch it all develop.
More From Shore Sports Network
