Viking team looks to regain the GMC title

Facing St. Joe’s in

tourney final for fourth straight year

BY GEORGE ALBANO

Staff Writer

The 2004 Greater Middlesex County championship game in boys lacrosse should have a very familiar look to it.

For the fourth year in a row, the South Brunswick and St. Joseph-Metuchen lacrosse teams will battle for the county tournament title when they meet Friday at 4 p.m. at the SBHS field.

In fact, in the four years the GMC tournament has been in existence, South Brunswick and St. Joseph are the only two teams to play in the finals. The Vikings won the inaugural crown in 2001, while St. Joe’s has won the last two crowns.

"It’s a great rivalry," said South Brunswick head coach Mark Ziminski.

The Vikings appear to be the favorite going into this year’s showdown. They won the regular-season GMC divisional championship with a perfect 5-0 record, which included a 5-2 victory over St. Joseph three weeks ago.

"It was a well-played game even though it was rainy and very muddy that day," Ziminski pointed out.

What’s more, top-seeded South Brunswick comes into the title game with an impressive 15-3 overall record following a 10-6 win over North Brunswick in Tuesday’s semifinal. St. Joseph, seeded third, knocked off No. 2 East Brunswick 11-5 in the other semifinal on Monday.

"They moved up from the C to A Division this season, so they played some very tough teams," Ziminski said of St. Joseph. "They faced tougher competition and as a result they had a more difficult year than they’re used to.

"But within the GMC they were still good," Ziminski added.

South Brunswick, meanwhile, finished third in the Curcio Division of the C Division alignment.

"We had a 12-game winning streak," Ziminski noted. "Then we played four games in five days and lost two of the four."

One thing St. Joe’s did in their game against South Brunswick was slow down the Vikings’ usually potent offense, limiting an offense that averages 12 goals a game to just five.

"We definitely have some guys who can score," Ziminski said, "but they played a zone defense against us so they slowed the tempo. That had something to do with the low scoring."

And Ziminski expects the same thing to happen in the rematch.

"I’m sure they’re going to slow down the tempo again," he said. "With a zone defense, they want you to take shots from the outside, but we’re going to try to take inside shots, try to get a few lay-ups, and then work from the outside.

"They expect their goalie to make a lot of saves outside the crease area, in the 12 to 15 yard range. Our job is to make sure we take good shots with our zone offense and to take a lot of shots. We want to outshoot them two-to-one. That’s one of our goals."

The Vikings certainly have players capable of putting the ball in the goal, too. Senior captain and midfielder Pat Jenkins leads the team with 54 goals and 24 assists, and was the Curcio Division player of the year.

"He’s our go-to guy," Ziminski said of Jenkins, who will play next season at Division III Cabrini College. "He’s been a leader for us all year."

Jordan Asch, another senior captain, has also been explosive on offense for the Vikings with 31 goals and 31 assists.

"He’s been our leader on attack," the coach said.

Two key players on defense have been Chris Ward, the other senior captain who’s headed to Kean College, and Carmine Gaudio, another senior who will play at Pace University.

"He’s one of the best on-ball defenders and he is the best clearing defender, without question," Ziminski said of Gaudio. "We’ve gotten great senior leadership from all those guys this year."

Another senior who’s played a key role has been goalie Roberto Garcia.

"He’s unorthodox, but extremely effective," Ziminski said. "He makes the stops he has to make."

The GMC championship game will bring the curtain down on another successful boys lacrosse season at South Brunswick. The Vikings are already done with the state tournament, beating Freehold Township, 7-4, in the first round before bowing to No. 1 Hunterdon-Central 15-5 in the quarterfinals.

"We had a tough time getting started in that game and they just took it to us," said Ziminski, whose team was seeded eighth. "We didn’t make a save the first four minutes and the next thing you know, we were in an uphill struggle. That’s tough to do against a team like that.

"We had hoped for better results, but to make it to the quarterfinals in Group IV is still a pretty good accomplishment for a program that’s six years old," concluded Ziminski, the only head coach the Vikings have ever had. "Now we’re looking to end our season on a high note by beating St. Joe’s and winning the GMC."