LAX: Mahwah Scores Close Win Over Bergen Catholic

The Mahwah Thunderbirds (3-1) and the Bergen Catholic Crusaders (2-3) faced off in Mahwah on Friday in a rematch of championship game of the 2010 Bergen County Lacrosse Tournament.  

Mahwah won that game just about a year ago by a score of 10-6.  It was a result that surprised many, but it was a victory that helped young Mahwah gain new respect as one of North Jersey’s elite programs.

Judging from the Thunderbirds’ on-field celebration at the end of the game, today’s hard-fought 12-10 victory in front of their home crowd was almost as big.

“It was definitely huge,” said Joe Kearney who spoke about the magnitude of the game for both teams.  “We know that they would come out hard, we had to come out a little bit harder.” 

Mahwah jumped out to take an early lead in the game.  Ryan Magner scored the first goal for the T-Birds.  Joe Kearny and Mark Glicini each scored before Magner scored his second goal of the period which gave Mahwah a 4-0 lead.

The Crusaders quickly stormed right back into it during the final minute and a half  of the period when Brendon McGuire scored twice and Jamie Ward fired one into the net to make the score 4-3 at the end of one.

The Crusaders quickly tied the game in the second quarter when Ward scored to knot it up just before Tucker James brought one out from behind the goal and stuck it by the keeper to give BC a 5-4 lead.

Jamie Ward and Brendon McGuire continued to show their firepower during the remainder of the first half to give the Crusaders a halftime lead of 8-5.     

The second half of this physical, hard-hitting game turned into the Joe Kearney & Mark Glicine Show. The pair teamed up to tally seven times in the second half to help the T-Birds recapture and secure the lead and the victory. 

Kearney led the way for Mahwah with seven goals and Glicini was credited with four.   

For the Crusaders:  Jamie Ward ended up with five goals in the game and Brandon McGuire had four for Bergen Catholic.

After the game, Mahwah head coach Ernie Yenco said that he still feels that his team is not firing on all cylinders yet.  But, he said that he felt that his team has great deal of resiliency.

Coach Joe Haemmerle was proud of the way his team played.  “That little bit of a lag I think hurt us.  We were down four but our kids responded really well,” said the coach. 

“We scored eight [goals] to their one over the next quarter and a half.   I though we competed well for four quarters and there’s not too much more that I can ask from my kids.”

Mahwah will play its next game on Thursday, April 21 when they are home against another strong competitor, Don Bosco Prep. That game is also set to face off at 4:30 p.m.