Colts Neck, Freehold Twp. Prepared for Rematch in Shore Conference Semis

Boys Soccer Shore Conference Tournament Semifinals

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025

At Memorial Field, Summerfield School, Neptune

 

No. 2 Colts Neck (13-1) vs. No. 14 Freehold Township (11-5-1), 4 p.m.

Colts Neck began its defense of its 2024 Shore Conference Tournament championship this season with its top scorer from last year carrying the load on offense. Through Colts Neck’s first six games, junior Sean Moore either scored or assisted 10 of the Cougars’ 12 goals. Then, after getting shut out by Christian Brothers Academy in a 3-2 loss, Moore bounced back to score in each of the team’s five games, including a career-high four goals in a win over Shore Regional.

Then, in a Shore Conference Tournament knockout round game, Moore got shut out again. There was one difference from the first Moore shutout: Colts Neck won the game. Even with Moore going without a goal, the Cougars stomped Brick, 4-0, to prove that even with its top scorer playing a quiet game by his standards.

Moore is a weapon that few teams have, but Colts Neck’s standing as a potential back-to-back champion is due to the continued improvement of the players around its star striker. The Cougars graduated the second and third-leading scorers from 2024 in Kyle Moore – Sean’s older brother – and Sam Gershon, so the process of developing a cohesive unit around Sean Moore has been a process, but the Cougars appear to have landed on the right balance of leaning on all 10 field players and using its greatest weapon.

“As we have gelled better as a team by connecting our passes and finding our shape, it’s made us a better team and it has taken a lot of work off Sean’s shoulders,” senior forward C.J. Collins said. “It has made it easier for him where he might not score, but we can still play a great game as a team and he can have an impact on us scoring goals without actually finishing any just by being on the field and putting pressure on the defense.”

That group of field players is senior-heavy group that returns improved returning impact players. Collins has three goals during the tournament, including a brace vs. Brick and another goal in Monday’s 4-0 win over Ocean. Midfielders Ben Kazani, Gabe Kruglyanski and Jonah Chiang are all back as seniors, with Kazani leading the team with 13 assists to go with his four goals.

“The faster we keep the ball moving the better we are,” Collins said. “When we keep the ball moving like we have, we’re dangerous and when we’re dangerous, no one can keep up with us.”

As dangerous as Colts Neck’s scoring has been, its defense has been even sharper. Colts Neck has allowed five goals in 14 games this season for a Shore-Conference-best 0.36 goals allowed per game – three of which came in the loss to CBA. Senior center backs Dillon Younger and Ryan Spencer are the returning members of the 2024 defense and have taken their respective games to the next level. The senior duo even combined on a goal in that 4-0 win over Brick, with Younger heading in a cross from Spencer for the second goal of the game.

“We have all played together as freshman, except for Spencer,” Younger said. “We have had good chemistry since freshman year, playing in the freshman tournaments and just learning one another. We know what we’re good at, we know what we’re not good at and we just cover for each other wherever we can.”

The new starting players of the defense are outside backs Nate Calhoun and Dean Natale, plus senior goalkeeper Liam Collura. After training with 2025 Colts Neck graduate and All-Shore goalkeeper Justin Appel throughout the offseason, Collura has turned himself into a worthy successor to Colts Neck’s standout keeper of 2024.

Last year’s semifinals and finals featured Sean Moore and Kyle Moore taking over the game, but if Colts Neck is to repeat as Shore Conference Tournament champion, it will likely need someone with a different last name to also step at a key moment. So far this season, players like Kazani, Collins, Kruglyanski and Chiang have answered the call this season, while Collura and the defense have held it down in the back.

Season on the Line

For most teams, the silver lining to being eliminated in the Shore Conference Tournament is that the focus immediately shifts to preparing for the NJSIAA Tournament. Freehold Township will not have that fallback now that the Patriots have been disqualified from the state playoffs, so their urgency in the SCT is unlike that of any team still playing.

So far, that urgency has been the fuel for a run to the semifinals by a team seeded No. 14 in the bracket – the highest seed for a semifinalist since Manasquan reached the championship game as a No. 15 seed in 2019. The Patriots have won three tournament games by a margin of a single goal, starting with a 2-1 win over Shore Conference Class B South champion Brick Memorial and followed by a 1-0, overtime road win over No. 3 Toms River South.

Its latest win was Monday’s 1-0 triumph over Manalapan on a late goal by senior Alex Rivera, which was the second game-winning goal of the tournament for the senior forward. That was Freehold Township’s first win since collectively learning of its state-tournament ban for 2025 and the reaction to the bad news was one of resilience.

“It was devastating, but we still love our coaches,” senior defender Bobby Lockard said of being excluded from the state tournament. “Through all the ups and downs, they have been there for us and that’s never going to change. Looking at our postseason, we can feel sorry for ourselves and give up or we can keep fighting. That’s all we can really do. Just keep moving forward.”

The Patriots are also a senior-driven team, with Rivera up top, three seniors in the midfield (Caine Massey and Gabe Bormolini in the middle and Gino Castaneda on the outside) and three more in the back (Lockard at center back and Jake Weiss and Charlie DelPrete on the outsides). The sophomore class has delivered big moments as well, with Chase Melcher (five goals, three assists) a steady contributor in the lineup throughout the year, Jack Manfredonia supplying two key goals off the bench and Giuseppe Romano developing into one of the Shore’s more dependable goalkeepers.

Prediction

Freehold Township has already proven it can hang with Colts Neck, which the Patriots did in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Cougars in which Moore scored the game-winner six minutes into extra time after dealing with two or three defenders in his face throughout the game. Freehold Township led, 1-0, with under five minutes to go in regulation before a free kick by Kazani found its mark to tie the game.

The last time these two programs met in the SCT semifinals, it was a similar script, with Freehold Township playing the role of favorite and Colts Neck the underdog. The eighth-seeded Cougars played the fourth-seeded Patriots even through regulation before Freehold Township’s best player – 2019 Shore Conference Player of the Year Zach Orrico – delivered the golden goal in overtime.

I mention those two games because that script feels applicable here. Freehold Township will have an emotional edge over any team it might play for the remainder of the tournament and up to this point, the Patriots have matched up favorably with the three opponents in front of them. In the semifinals, however, they will have to deal with the Shore’s most dangerous forward, a cohesive supporting cast on the attack and a defensive unit that has statistically been the Shore’s best. While Manalapan was an opponent with skill and potential, Colts Neck is a team with skill and a championship track record. Finishing off this upset would make this one of the all-time runs by a team seeded in the double-digits and that result is definitely on the table.

For Colts Neck, the seven returning starters this year are still fueled by last year’s state-tournament loss to Long Branch, which was the result of a blown two-goal lead – a surprisingly frequent occurrence last year for a team that finished 18-1-2. This year, the Cougars have made sure their leads stand up.

“This team has a lot of experience together,” Collins said. “We know we can’t take any team for granted. Any team in the Shore can be dangerous on any given day. We’ve got to show up every single day.”

Against a team with Sean Moore leading the attack and a defense that has hardly cracked this season, it will likely take a 2-1 result or penalty kicks to get through to the final. Despite CBA doing it already this season, envisioning a third goal vs. this Colts Neck team is difficult and keeping the Cougars off the board might be even harder to envision, so the 2-1 score is probably what we’re looking at one way or another.

In this case, the bad news is also the good news for Freehold Township. For a fourth straight round, their opponent is the pick. Given they are still playing, the Patriots seem to like the bulletin-board material.

The Pick: Colts Neck, 2-1

 

Quarterfinal Picks Record: 3-1

Overall Picks Record: 14-6