With a major upset staring it right in the face, No. 7 Broadneck came out smoking in the second half and scored 11 unanswered goals to put away North County, 11-3 in a 3A-4A East region semifinal in Cape St. Claire.
The host Bruins (16-1) will host Annapolis, a 13-10 winner over Queen Anne's in the other semifinal, 7 p.m. tomorrow in the region final. Broadneck defeated Annapolis, 8-1, earlier in the season.
A fired up North County (11-6) jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead last night by zoning the Bruins. Unfortunately for the Knights, the Bruins attack got into a zone, a second half scoring zone, and rolled to the victory.
Senior attackmen Gerry Case and George McConochie combined for seven goals and four assists to ignite the barrage. Case had four of the goals to become the Bruins all-time leading goals scorer for a season (50) and career (113).
David Hooper, a 1988 grad, held the season record (48) and career (111) before last night.
"We were real tight in the first half with it being the semifinals and having to play a good team like North County again," said Case, who is headed to Loyola College. "The second half we created situations and put it all together."
North County's defensive zone and goalie Jason Stiegler created problems for the Bruins in the first half. Stiegler had six of his 11 saves in the first half and senior defenseman Kevin Bloomquis anchored the zone.
Inefficient passing and catching not to mention bad decisions zooming in on goal resulted in the Bruins failing to take advantage of two extra-man opportunities in the second period.
Meanwhile, Brian Bolonis gave the Knights a 1-0 lead with about seven minutes left in the first period and Bobby Lincoln's pair of goals made it 3-0 North County at the half.
"Why we started like that has me puzzled, and I don't know if it was us or North County being well coached," said Bruin coach Clay White. "North County played smart and we didn't.
"We didn't hit the backside against the zone."
That quickly changed after the break as the Knights in the words of coach Paul Shea "became unraveled and they [Broadneck] came out with a lot of fire."
McConochie and junior attack Erik Holt scored goals 30 seconds apart to start the second half, and Case fed sophomore midfielder Matt Atkinson for the tying goal with 4: 25 remaining in the third.
Case found Paul Marek for the go-ahead goal and the former made it 5-3 just before the end of the period. It was obvious that the Bruins had a grip on momentum.
"We showed a lot of poise in the first half, but they got a couple backside goals on us to start the second half," said Shea. "We made some poor decisions on slides and they took it to us."
Two more goals by Case and one by McConochie and the Bruins had a commanding 8-3 lead with just under five minutes remaining. Jeremy Eckman, McConochie and Case with his fourth goal coming with 1: 25 left, capped the scoring.
"Broadneck is a very good team, but I think it's going to be a tight game with Annapolis in the title game," said Shea.
Annapolis 13, Queen Anne's 10: Brian McNew scored six goals to power host Annapolis (13-1) past Queen Anne's (11-4) in Class 4A-3A East semifinal.
Broadneck will face Annapolis at home tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the region final.
Dulaney 16, Parkville 3: Bill Kauffman led all scorers with five goals and three assists as Dulaney advanced to the Class 3A-4A North semifinals. Joe High added three goals for the Lions, who play Eastern Tech Thursday in the regional final.
Pub Date: 5/15/96
