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Cover image courtesy of Nolan Barnes
It turns out that early reports of Seton Hall Prep‘s demise were a bit premature.
Senior goalie Brennan Lyons (Leading Edge / Providence) stopped 11 shots and five-star junior LSM Jagger Zemachson (Leading Edge / Duke) had a pair of caused turnovers to help the Pirates knock off rival Delbarton, 9-7, in a fierce rivalry battle.
“I think this is the beauty of a rivalry game,” Lyons told NJ.com’s Bob Badders. “The first six games hadn’t gone the way we personally wanted them to go. But you see all these big rivalry games on TV – the Iron Bowl, the Backyard Brawl, Michigan-Ohio St. – and no matter what the record is, we play these guys every year, and it’s a hatred. Everything gets tossed out the window.”
Owen Dunleavy (Leading Edge / UMBC) and Cooper Christian (Sacred Heart) each tallied twice for the Pirates. Quinlan Oakes (Stevens) and Drew Merklinger (Gettysburg) paced Seton Hall with three points on the strength of a goal and two assists.
“Coming into this game we obviously haven’t had the hottest start, but we kept it within ourselves, kept it in the locker room and didn’t listen to any outside noise,” Zemachson told Badders. “We knew we could get it done when everybody doubted us. We came in knowing we had a chance, and we gave it all to win this game.”
The two teams could potentially see each other again in the New Jersey Non-Public A playoffs. Check out the full game highlights at the video player above. NLF highlights are courtesy of Gene Colacino and PJ Candido.