Dylan Furnback Makes 19 Saves to Lead Jackson Memorial Past Red Bank

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LITTLE SILVER — With each shot Red Bank took - and there were many - Jackson Memorial goalie Dylan Furnback only got stronger. The sophomore’s spectacular play between the pipes on Thursday led the Jaguars to a key nondivisional victory.

Furnback made 19 saves, several coming off point-blank attempts, while being peppered with 49 shots to lead the Jaguars to a 13-11 win over the No. 9 Bucs. Senior midfielder Eric Quaranta fired in a game-high five goals while junior midfielder Jared Calhoun had three goals and one assist to help the Jaguars start the season 2-0.

“He’s a true leader, one of our captains, and he’ll do anything for his team and we saw that today,” Jackson Memorial head coach Joe Pienkowski said of Furnback. “He plays like a senior and like every game is the last one. We rely on him.”

“Freshman year he stepped up for us after we lost our senior starter, and he’s been doing a great job ever since,” Quaranta said. “He’s a great point of momentum for us. He makes those huge saves and we rally around that.”

Senior midfielder Zack Tetro added two goals and one assist, senior attackman Alex Aguilar had two goals and senior attackman Troy Wolf chipped in with three assists as the Jaguars followed their comeback win over Brick Memorial with a solid road win.

Cole Smolokoff led Red Bank (1-3) with three goals and four assists while Jack O’Connor and Pat Karr each scored twice and Dan Vilardi had a goal and two assists. John Pierce finished with 10 saves while facing 32 shots by the Jaguars.

The game couldn’t have started any better for Jackson as Calhoun won the opening face-off clean and raced ahead uncontested before whipping a shot past Pierce just 10 seconds into the game. Quaranta would connect off a feed from Calhoun at 8:47 and Tetro added an unassisted tally at 4:15 to open a 3-0 lead.

Red Bank would get right back into the game with four goals in the final 2:06 of the first quarter to take a one-goal lead on scores by O’Connor, Brian Fagan, Karr and Tyler Wark, but the momentum the Jaguars had built early sustained them throughout the game.

“I definitely think if we weren't up by three goals we would have been deflated,” Pienkowski said. “Being able to show we could score quickly helped us to be able to come right back.”

“I think it really helped the whole team get into a groove,” Furnback said. “Even though they put in four later in the quarter, we were off to a really good start, and that's something we’ve been looking for.”

Red Bank would push its lead to 5-3 when Smolokoff tallied unassisted at 8:58 of the second quarter, but Aguilar returned it to a one-goal game at 6:16. Karr scored off a pass from Vilardi at 5:45 to put the Bucs up 6-4, but Calhoun and Quaranta scored unassisted nine seconds apart to tie the score at six heading to halftime.

In the third quarter the Jaguars put some cushion between themselves and the Bucs by outscoring them 5-1. Wolf set up Calhoun for a goal on a man-advantage at 10:39 before Tetro worked the ball over to Quaranta, who ripped one in at 6:04 to make it 8-6. Smolokoff struck at 4:18 to cut it to 8-7, but Tetro’s second with 1:17 left and Quaranta’s fourth with 27 seconds to go put Jackson up 11-7 heading to the fourth quarter.

Red Bank made it interesting by scoring four times in the fourth quarter, getting goals from Brayden Seely, O’Connor, Smolokoff and Vilardi, but goals by Quaranta and a key marker by Aguilar off a pass form Wolf with 3:19 to go helped the Jaguars hold off the Bucs.

A key point of emphasis for Jackson was a balanced attack, which it got with five different players scoring goals. And with Wolf being the No. 1 assignment for opposing defenses, it was important for the Jags to be able to make teams pay for locking him off and leaving other players open.

“They were watching Troy the entire game, and we just did what we do,” Quaranta said. “It’s a team game. Troy took that defender out and from there we just worked our offense.”

“Troy is one of the best players in the Shore so teams are going to try to lock him off,” Pienkowski said. “When that happens we need other players to step up, and we got that today.”

A big week awaits Jackson with games against No. 5 Freehold Township, Robbinsville, Toms River North and No. 1 Southern, and the Jaguars hope to sustain the momentum gained from a 2-0 start.

“I think we’re very talented individually and every day we’re putting the pieces together,” Pienkowski said.

“We just have to be better than those teams,” Quaranta said. “That’s all it comes down to.”

BOX SCORE

Jackson Memorial 13, No. 9 Red Bank 11

Jackson Memorial (2-0) 3 3 5 2 — 13

Red Bank (1-3)              4 2 1 4 — 11

GOALS - JM: Eric Quaranta 5, Jared Calhoun 3, Zack Tetro 2, Alex Aguilar 2, Billy Plungis; RBR: Cole Smolokoff 3, Jack O’Connor 2, Pat Karr 2, Brian Fagan, Tyler Wark, Dan Vilardi, Brayden Seely.

ASSISTS - JM: Troy Wolf 3, Jared Calhoun, Zack Tetro, Matt George; RBR: Cole Smolokoff 4, Dan Vilardi 2, Brian Fagan.

SAVES - JM: Dylan Furnback 19; RBR: John Pierce 10.

SHOTS - Red Bank 49-32.