2026 Boys Soccer NJSIAA Tournament Preview: The Shore in Group 1
Over the past five seasons, Shore Regional has owned the NJSIAA Group I spotlight as far as Shore Conference teams go in the boys soccer state tournament. The Blue Devils have won two sectional championships during that time and have, at different points, been ranked among the top 10 teams in the Shore Conference.
This year, however, Shore finds itself sharing that spotlight with another team from the Shore that is hoping to shove the Blue Devils back behind the curtain. Point Pleasant Beach is 17-1 going into the state tournament and seeking its first ever NJSIAA sectional championship after authoring the best regular season in the history of its program. The two Shore Conference teams could meet in the Central Jersey Group I semifinals if the seeds hold for the first two rounds.
Over the past several years, the Group I field has become more crowded with charter and tech schools and that has made qualifying for the state tournament harder for the other Group I programs from the Shore to qualify. Asbury Park, Henry Hudson and New Egypt all had their moments this season, but those moments did not translate to the required number of power points to grab a spot in the Central Group I field. With all three, plus Keyport, falling short of a spot, the Shore’s focus in Group I will be on Point Beach and Shore.
Central Jersey Group I
Shore Teams in the Field: No. 2 Point Pleasant Beach, No. 3 Shore
No. 1 Seed: Roselle Park
Defending Champion: No. 16 Delaware Valley
Favorite: Shore. No team in the Central Jersey Group I section combines facing tough competition and getting results better than Shore. The Blue Devils not hold home-field advantage, but they will be prepared for just about anything that comes their way. The one element that could throw off Shore is playing on Point Beach’s grass field in a potential semifinal match. Other than that, the only thing that Shore – or most other teams – cannot fully account for is the unpredictability of a single game.
Dark Horse: No. 9 Middlesex. This year’s field does not have the double-digit darling that leaps off the page. Delaware Valley is the defending champion but is not the same team that rolled through the 2025 bracket. Even with the quality schedule compared to the rest of CJ I, the Terriers remain a long shot to make noise. No. 11 Highland Park could have been a sleeper with a better draw, but No. 6 Brearley will be a difficult first-round game and should the Owls pull the upset, Shore would await in the quarterfinals.
That brings us to Middlesex, which has the benefit of playing on the side of the bracket opposite Point Beach, Shore and Brearley. Middlesex has not been especially impressive, but the Blue Jays have seen enough on their schedule to give both No. 8 Dunellen and, potentially, No. 1 Roselle Park a serious challenge in the first two rounds of the tournament. With most of the leading contenders to win the section on the other side of the bracket, a team like Middlesex or Dunellen could make a run.
No. 7 Dayton is also worth a mention as a possible surprise finalist, even though getting through Point Beach and Shore in back-to-back rounds is an unlikely outcome. The Bulldogs enter the tournament with an 8-8-1 record and a solid schedule from which to draw experience heading into November. They have their flaws and would have to get by Point Beach in the quarterfinals, but if Point Beach has a question surrounding it, it’s whether or not they are battle-tested enough to win a sectional title. Dayton can at least put that to the test with a good showing and should the Bulldogs pull off a quarterfinal upset, they will take their chances vs. Shore or Brearley.
Bracket Breakdown: As intimated in the previous section of this write-up, there is a pretty significant gap between the contenders on the two ends of the bracket. No. 1 Roselle Park should have a relatively clean road to the final, but the Panthers themselves enter with some questions that come with playing a modest schedule. With that in mind, No. 5 Florence might have the best draw of any team in the field. The Flashes won two games as a No. 16 seed last season and should be considerable favorites in each of their first two games before running into one of Roselle Park, Middlesex or Dunellen and they still may be the favorite in that semifinal as well.
On the other side, there are four teams that might be the favorites if they were in the top-end of the bracket. Shore and Point Beach are on a collision-course for the semifinals, but both Brearley and Dayton will have something to say about that, while No. 10 Manville and Highland Park will have something to say about Dayton and Brearley even getting out of the first round. Brearley, in particular, has a difficult path to the final with Highland Park in round one and Shore in round two, but the Bears have won at Shore before, avenging a loss to the Blue Devils in the 2023 Group I final by upsetting Shore in the 2024 sectional tournament.
Prediction: Shore over Florence. Point Beach has two dynamic scorers in Brody Powers and Evan Hajeski and a solid supporting cast of role players, but Shore is a deeper team with more ways to beat an opponent. On a given day, Point Beach can play with anyone and the homefield advantage through the first three rounds is a huge factor, but Shore has gone toe-to-toe with several teams at or even beyond Point Beach’s level this season. With apologies to Jackson, Lacey and Holmdel, Point Beach has not seen a team with the skill on the attack that Shore has. It doesn’t mean the Garnet Gulls can’t win the matchup should it come to pass – they most certainly can – but the lack of high-level games is likely to catch up to Point Beach at some point in this tournament.
Round-by-Round Picks
Opening Round
(1) Roselle Park over (16) Delaware Valley
(9) Middlesex over (8) Dunellen
(5) Florence over (12) Edison Magnet
(4) College Achieve Central over (13) Somerset Tech
(3) Shore over (14) South Amboy
(6) Brearley over (11) Highland Park
(7) Dayton over (10) Manville
(2) Point Beach over (15) Perth Amboy Magnet
Quarterfinals
(9) Middlesex over (1) Roselle Park
(5) Florence over (4) College Achieve Central
(3) Shore over (6) Brearley
(2) Point Beach over (7) Dayton
Semifinals
(5) Florence over (9) Middlesex
(3) Shore over (2) Point Beach
Championship
(3) Shore over (5) Florence
