St. Peters wins North crown

By Fred Siegle

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - St. Peter's Prep is getting used to playing, and winning, at South Brunswick High School.

The Marauders repeated as NJSIAA North Section champions on Tuesday, beat Vernon 25-22, 25-19 in the championship game, and earning them a chance to win the overall state title when they face St. Josephs on Thursday.

"We weren't near as nervous as last year (when they beat Bayonne in the North final before losing to East Brunswick), one of our players threw up before that match,'' said senior Al Yasneski. "We didn't have anything like that this year. We spent the whole season getting ready for this game, and we were ready.''

"Having been in this game last year, that definitely helped tonight,'' said senior Jake Blicharz. "That's probably a part of why we won ... they (Vernon) were ready, but experience definitely matters. There's a big crowd, your season is on the line, and having already been through that helps. We had that.''

After the close first game, St. Peters went ahead 12-7 on a rotation call against Vernon in the second game, and the Vikings were never able to close the gap to under four. An ace by Austin Both got Vernon to 19-15, but after a timeout, Blicharz had a kill to make it 20-15. Yasneski teamed with middle Miles McCann for a block for the match winning point.

Blicharz finished with 8 kills, 16 assists, 4 digs, and 3 blocks, while McCann had 8 blocks, 6 kills and an ace. Yasneski contributed 8 kills and 4 digs, while Peter Jimenez had 3 kills, 2 blocks, 6 digs and an ace and Jeremy Bonafe 11 assists and an ace.

"We were able to just pull it out tonight,'' Yasneski said. "The first game, their blocking was effecting us, but we pulled through. We neutralized (middle Tom) Burke pretty well for the whole match. And in the second game, our passing was good, so we were swinging.''

"The key for us was that we stuck together,'' Blicharz said. "There was no negativity on the court. I think if everybody stays positive, and we just take one point at a time, we have a chance against any team. Thursday's game is going to be tough, real tough, but we feel we have a chance.''

Kyle Washburn and Miles Eustace each had 6 kills for Vernon, which finished 26-2 and had earned it's first-ever spot in the final four by beating Bayonne last Friday. Burke had 4 kills and 2 blocks, and setter James Gibson had 2 kills and 15 assists.

"I have no complaints,'' coach Jeff DeYoung said. "We could have played a little better, our serve-receive was definitely off a little. There were 100 other teams that would have loved to have been here, but it was us.''