2025 SSI Boys Soccer Player of the Year: Sean Moore, Colts Neck
With his older brother, Kyle, at his side, Sean Moore established himself as one of the Shore Conference’s most dominant scorers on the soccer pitch before the end of his sophomore year in the fall of 2024.
As a freshman at Colts Neck High School, Sean Moore was an All-Shore selection. A year ago, as a sophomore, he reached First-Team All-Shore status and joined forces with Kyle in leading Colts Neck to its first Shore Conference Tournament championship in boys soccer.
This fall, Sean Moore played his first high school season without Kyle and that did not prevent him from reaching the next stage of his evolution as a force in New Jersey High School soccer.
In his third year at Colts Neck, Moore led the Shore Conference with 30 goals and was the Cougars’ greatest weapon on their way to a second straight Shore Conference Tournament final appearance. After climbing his way to the All-Shore First Team last year, Moore took the next step as a junior and is the 2025 Shore Sports Insider Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
Colts Neck junior Sean Moore attempts to avoid Manalapan senior Patrick Hearn. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
On top of the Shore-leading 30 goals, Moore also kicked in eight assists this year to finish second in the conference in total scoring. He came up one point shy of Ranney senior Eddie Magherini (29 goals, 11 assists) for the Shore lead, which would have marked the second straight year Moore led the conference in scoring – both while playing in one of the Shore Conference’s A divisions. No other player in the loaded Class A North division scored more than 16 goals, barely half of Moore’s Shore-leading total.
Moore was in the mix with the top scorers in the conference when it came to scoring multiple goals in one game. He scored two or more goals eight times and recorded four hat tricks, including a four-goal game against a 13-win Shore Regional squad. Only Magherini had more multi-goal games (10) and more hat tricks (five) and Moore now stands at nine career hat tricks in three years.
While Moore was among the best players in the Shore Conference at scoring in bunches, he was the absolute best at scoring consistently. The junior scored in 17 of his team’s 22 games this season, which led the entire Shore Conference. Moore’s ability to score also had a strong correlation with winning; in those 17 games, Colts Neck went 17-0. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Cougars went 2-3 when Moore did not score.
Sean Moore slips through and finishes a ball from Ben Kazani to give Colts Neck a 1-0 lead on Manalapan in the 64th. pic.twitter.com/HdMNieOFQj
— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) September 8, 2025
Some of Moore’s most memorable moments came in those games in which he scored just one goal, but that goal was the deciding play. He scored second-half game-winners to beat both Manalapan and Marlboro in 1-0 Colts Neck victories in Shore Conference Class A North divisional play. In the first of three showdowns with Middletown South – the No. 1 team in the final Shore Sports Insider Top 10 – Moore scored near the midway point of the first half to provide the deciding goal in another Cougars 1-0 win.
Sean Moore strikes in the 18th for a 1-0 Colts Neck lead. That’s his 8th goal of the season. pic.twitter.com/7drzU03AMk
— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) September 20, 2025
While all of those goals were defining moments for Moore, no team felt the wrath of the SSI Player of the Year more than Freehold Township. In a September Shore Conference Tournament group stage game, Moore became Colts Neck’s all-time leading scorer by scoring the golden goal in a 2-1 overtime win for the Cougars after senior teammate Ben Kazani tied the game with under five minutes to go.
In the actual Shore Conference Tournament, Moore did it to the Patriots again. After senior teammate Gabe Kruglyansky tied the game with just over a minute to go, Moore followed by beating four Patriots defenders to score the golden goal inside the first minute of overtime. Moore’s memorable goal ended a 2-1 comeback victory and sent Colts Neck to its second straight Shore Conference Tournament championship game.
Sean Moore does it on his own for the golden goal in the 1st minute of overtime and Colts Neck ends Freehold Twp’s miracle run with a miracle of their own.
Final: Colts Neck 2, Freehold Twp. 1 pic.twitter.com/6BXGSvMrSs
— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 22, 2025
Moore capped his 30-goal season with hat tricks in three of Colts Neck’s final five matches, including two NJSIAA Tournament games. He racked up three goals and an assist in a 5-0 win over Nottingham in the first round of the Central Jersey Group III playoffs, then later posted another hat trick in a 4-1 win over Brick Memorial in the sectional semifinals to hit the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career.
Through three high school seasons, Moore is on pace to break two Shore Conference records and, potentially, a milestone that no boys player on record at the Shore has ever reached. If Moore plays his final year – never a certainty in high school boys soccer given the pull of academy soccer and the challenges in securing a college scholarship – he will be 15 goals away from breaking the Shore Conference record for career goals, currently held by 2016 Shore Regional graduate J.T. Kessler. With five more after that, Moore would become the Shore’s first ever 100-goal scorer in boys soccer.
Colts Neck junior Sean Moore. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
The last record in Moore’s crosshairs is the all-time scoring record, which currently belongs to 1985 Manchester graduate Mark Wilson, who amassed 92 goals and 48 assists for a total of 232 points. Moore is 43 points from passing Wilson after posting seasons of 52 points (21 goals and 10 assists) as a freshman and 70 (29 goals and 12 assists) as a sophomore.
Beyond the appeal of breaking all-time records in his final year, there is also the pull of leading Colts Neck to its first NJSIAA group championship since 2000. Moore was already an integral part of the Cougars’ first ever Shore Conference Tournament championship team in 2024 and led them back to the championship game for the third time in program history this fall. With eight senior starters graduating, Moore’s 2026 supporting cast would look much different, but with one of the Shore’s all-time scorers back on the roster, the Cougars could again be one of the Shore’s best outfits next fall as their most prolific scorer chases even more history.
