East Brunswick tops Southern

By Fred Siegle

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - East Brunswick and Southern were going point-for-point, hit-for-hit, block-for-block, dig-for-dig and even error-for-error in the second game of the NJSIAA South/Central championship match. Finally, the Bears' Eric Corpus came up with the big play to top all the other big plays and finish off his team's 25-19, 31-29 victory.

When Southern middle Bryan Batiste tried to tip past a double block by East Brunswick middle Alex Rigley and Corpus, a play that probably works 90 percent of the time, Corpus didn't let it happen, pushing the ball back across the net and to the floor for the winning point.

"I think adrenalin just got me up a couple extra inches, and I just hung there as long as I could and got it down,'' Corpus said. "They had game point against us a couple times, but we were still really confident. I don't think the idea of losing ever crossed our minds.''

The victory over Southern, which was 40-0 and had beaten the Bears twice this year, erased all memories of those losses, and also enabled East Brunswick to get past the point their season had ended each of the previous two years - one match before the state final.

''I just kept saying to myself, 'I'm not losing three years in a row in the state semifinals,'' said senior Travis Heilman.

"The past two years, all I've wanted was to get the chance to play in the state final,'' Corpus said. "The last three days, that's all I had in my mind.''

East Brunswick had to battle back from a 22-19 deficit in the second game. Two straight Southern errors and then a kill by Corpus tied the score, and after a Southern timeout, Corpus put the Bears (29-2) ahead with a kill on an overpass. Southern had two game-point chances at the end of the game, while East Brunswick had four chances before Corpus made the game-ending play.

"I was starting to think it might never end,'' Corpus said. "It didn't seem like either team could make a play to win.''

"It was a great game, Southern played great, they really battled us,'' Heilman said. "It was real tense at the end.''

"Momentum kept swinging back and forth in the second game,'' said East Brunswick setter Kyle Barry. "But we stayed focused throughout the match, and then Eric came up with that big block.''

"We were one play away from being in a third game,'' Southern coach Eric Maxwell said. "That game was made up of a lot of little plays, if just one of them had come out a little different, we'd still be playing out there (in a third game).''

East Brunswick had come out strong in the first game, with junior Christian Portera providing a big spark. He hadn't played left side in the Bears' two losses to Southern, but played that spot in the front row and had some important blocks and big kills.

"Christian really stepped up and made a big difference,'' Heilman said. "Especially blocking.''

Player-for-player, the Bears are smaller than Southern, but they out-blocked their opponents in the match.

Instead of basic 1-balls in the middle, Rigley and John McLaughlin ran more back slides and 1-aways.
"We tried to move the ball around more, especially with our middles so they couldn't block us as easily,'' Barry said.

"Blocking was a big part of it,'' said Southern's Jeff Elsasser. "They definitely out-blocked us, which is a surprise when you look at the lineups. They came out today and made the right plays and played the right people at the right times. They deserved it.''

While East Brunswick moves into the the state final against North winner St. Peters Prep on Friday, Southern finished with a state record 40 victories while playing a tough schedule that included multiple matches against most of the other top teams in the state.

"Winning 40 in a row against the competition we faced, it's probably the greatest run in the history of the state,'' Maxwell said.