Rebels Pound Neptune in Season Finale

Fifty-four seconds into their final regular season game, there may have been some discomfort spread across the Howell Rebels boys lacrosse teams bench.

It would not be there long.

After falling behind Neptune (3-9) 1-0 less than a minute into the game, Howell (9-4) responded with an impressive offensive onslaught, scoring 13 unanswered goals -- 11 in the first half -- to pull away for the 13-2 victory, Thursday afternoon.

"We wanted to come out and feel like we are playing really well," Howell head coach Derek Reichenbecher said, "We came out with a slow start but we were able to clean some things up and be able to go in the tournament time feeling good about how you're playing."

Rob Hart evened the game at one with 8:52 remaining in the fourth quarter off a beautiful feed from sophomore standout Alec Dambach and scored again 4:01 later to give Howell the 2-1 lead, which they would not relinquish.

Senior Tyler Ott and Dambach added goals late in the first quarter to give the Rebels a 4-1 advantage.

Senior Kevin Scott scored three goals in the second quarter, along with goals from Elden Andrews, Ben Talcott, Dambach and Tyler Verdoni, as Howell notched seven and cruise to the 11-1 halftime lead.

Scott added his game-high fourth goal and senior Ryan Dambach notched a tally for the Rebels to to finalize the score at 13-2.

Reichenbecher was able to use several underclassmen in Howell's final regular season game of 2011.

"It was good to be able to get some younger kids playing time," he said.

Eight different Rebels were able to tally a goal in the game, a key component to success for the Rebels.

"You want the kids to feel like they know what they are doing," Reichenbecher said, "To be a good team you need to have a lot of guys who will be confident with the ball and it seems like a game like this brings that out in a lot of them."

Nick Schwarz was outstanding in net for Howell, allowing just one goal and Tyler Ornstein allowed just one goal in playing the fourth quarter.

Howell will now await the Shore Conference Tournament seedings which take place Friday night.

Last year, the Rebels earned the 12-seed and upset fifth-seeded Jackson Memorial on an overtime goal from Rob Hart.

"The Shore Conference is very deep, we're going to play someone good, and it's going to be a good game," Reichenbecher said.