Led By Rafferty, Dragons One Victory From Finals

After Verona's Matt Lander scored the first goal of the game midway through the second period,  Brick High School feared its title hopes  might be slipping away.

But Brick came out of the locker room on a mission, scoring four goals in the third period for a 4-1 victory on Sunday night to move to within one victory of the NJSIAA  Public B championship.

Despite putting 19 shots on goal after two periods, the Green Dragons had searched for their offense against the 10th-seeded Hillbillies, now thinking about an upset.

Earlier, Jeff Lange drew a tripping penalty. Following a Brian Murphy point shot, Brendan Dowd had a chance to score on the rebound before the puck was frozen. As time ran out on the power play, the puck slid behind the Verona goalie, before settling on the goal line with the goaltender falling on it.

Early in the second period, Andrew Reiss and David Kearns were unable to connect on a 2-on-1. Minutes later, Tyler Martin came up short off a scramble in front of the net. Reiss was all alone there, but failed to score.

"We just didn't get any bounces in the first two periods," captain Patrick Kearns said. "Still, none of us panicked, we knew it was only a matter of time before we got something going."

Verona was  aggresive in attacking the Dragons' defensemen when they controlled the puck in the offensive zone.

"They were very fast," head coach Bob Auriemma said. "They were tough on our guys, created a few 2-on-1's."

"It was so frustrating," Kearns said. "They collaspe down, block shots and turn it to offense right away."

While the Dragons' offense took time to get hot, goaltender Eddie Rafferty was sharp from the opening puck drop. Stealing the show is something Rafferty has done with ease this season, however, Sunday night he did it while nursing a sprained ankle.

"He has just been huge for us tonight and all season," Auriemma said. "He made a couple that were labeled for the back of the net. It has to be tough with the sprain but it looked like adrenaline just took over."

Seven minutes into the contest, Rafferty flashed his glove stealing what would have been a sure goal getting over with a split to stop a one timer.

Tom Reinstadler made the defensive play of the night, hustling back and ending a Verona breakaway with a diving pokecheck.

The fireworks began for the Dragons as the third period began. With 12:44 to play, Brick finally got on the scoreboard when Tyler Martin buried Matt Gumina's breakaway rebound.   Verona came back with its best chance of the night. Rafferty managed to make a diving kick save to keep the score even. Seconds later, the aforementioned third line rose to the occasion.

On a hard-working forecheck that found the entire third line behind the Verona net, Nick Auriemma came free with the puck. As he was on his knees, he slid a pass across to Austin Blanco, who was still behind the net. Blanco took the puck on his backhand, threw it on net softly, and deflected it off the goaltender and in to score, giving Brick a 2-1 lead.

"We just wanted to get one coming into the third," said Blanco. "We knew we could score, we just had to break through with the first. I wasn't looking to score there, on my backhand from behind the net - I was just looking for a rebound."

After taking the lead, Brick quickly added insurance goals.

With eight minutes to play, Matt Gumina circled around the Verona net as a Brick power play had just expired, cut to the middle, and seemed to surprise the goaltender with a quick, rising backhand from in tight as he scored to make it 3-1.

The Dragons' final goal came with 7:09 left to play. Just eight seconds into their power play, Ryan Mooney set up Patrick Kearns with a one-timer from behind the net. Kearns beat the goalie high blocker side as his Dragons moved to one win from the Public B championship game.

In the way of the Dragons' path to the Prudential Center stands a familiar opponent: the Middletown South Eagles. The Dragons defeated the Eagles twice in the regular season, but they know how little that means now, after falling in the Handchen Cup to Red Bank Catholic - a squad they also beat twice in the regular season.

Shots finished in a 34-24 advantage for Brick.

"We have been stuck not getting past the quarterfinals for a while," said Kearns. "This is the first time our class has reached the semifinals, we want to keep going."