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New No. 1: Magherini, Ranney Cap Championship Run in South Non-Public B

Matt Manley|November 13, 2025|Last Updated November 14, 2025

TINTON FALLS — Eddie Magherini and the rest of his senior teammates on the 2025 Ranney boys soccer team were in eighth grade the last time their current program played in an NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B championship game prior to Thursday.

When they entered the program the following fall, they were tasked with getting the Panthers back to that position before their four years were up. On Thursday, they found themselves with a chance to realize the vision they had for themselves since they were freshmen: to take Ranney to new heights.

Magherini scored twice to set the new goal-scoring standard for a single season and Ranney — the No. 1 seed in the South Non-Public B section — dominated No. 2 Princeton Day, 4-0, to seize the school’s first  sectional championship in boys soccer.

With his championship brace on Thursday, Magherini moves into the single-season lead with 29 goals, eclipsing the record of 27 set by former teammate and 2025 graduate Saeed Torres during the 2024 season. Magherini leads a core of five seniors — center back Alex Lennon, center midfielder Tylor Yang, outside back Jack Fallon and goalkeeper Jake Nagy — who have been at the center of Ranney’s revival over the last two seasons.

“When I came to Ranney, I wanted to set a bar for the underclassmen that we’re here to win,” Magherini said. “From freshman year, we worked our way up, we developed and for me and Tylor and all the seniors, we wanted to show the underclassmen that winning state sectionals is possible at a school like this.”

“That class came in, and I would say they have been one of the better classes we’ve ever had here,” ninth-year Ranney coach Donny Gray said. “Eddie, Alex Lennon, Tylor, Jake Nagy at keeper – it all led up to this point. I’m still a little bit in awe. You go through Ranney’s history and this is only their second final. Just making the states and competing was the bar when we first got here, so to see us finally close the deal, it touches my heart. We have been here many times before and been on the other end, but to see us win, it’s a joy. We don’t see that much here”

Playing in the sectional final round for the first time since that 2021 loss to Princeton Day, Ranney jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. Magherini cut in front of a defender to settle a pass from Fallon, dribbled into the clear and ripped a shot into the net.

Magherini nearly assisted a second goal when he found wide-open sophomore Braden Morin with a cross, but Morin’s shot slammed off the crossbar. Junior Juan Torres also struck a free kick off the bottom of the crossbar, with the ball landing just outside the goal on the downward bounce.

Ranney had another near goal denied in the first 10 minutes of the second half when Magherini’s follow-up on a shot by Morin was disallowed for offsides, but Magherini would not be deterred. In the 51st minute, the senior collected the ball on the left side and took on a Princeton Day defender. He cut back on the defender twice, then ripped a left-footed shot that curled inside the near post for a 2-0 lead.

“It was sort of a breakaway,” Magherini said. “I cut it back to the left, and I wasn’t expecting that shot to do that. I was trying to go to the bottom left, but it worked out.”

Prior to the second goal by Magherini, Ranney was in firm control of the game. However, the Panthers were playing a dangerous game in a championship setting against the same program that beat the Panthers in the 2021 championship game and also reached the sectional final a year ago. Despite a 9-1 advantage in shots early in the second half, Ranney was just one miscue away from finding itself in a tie game.

“Just based on how we played, we just outmatched them,” Gray said. “(Princeton Day junior Keegan Fullman) was good, but Alex Lennon in the back slowed him down, and he didn’t do too much. That was the goal at half: if we can get the second goal, it will lead to three and four.”

Magherini’s second goal indeed broke the levee for the home team. Freshman Miles Serrapica piled on with another Ranney goal in the 60th minute when he pounced on a mishandle by Princeton Day goalkeeper J.J. Acevedo.

Morin finally broke through after several near connections when his 25-yard shot cleared Acevedo and slipped under the bar for a 4-0 lead for the host team in the 69th minute. Nagy finished off the clean sheet, with Lennon and Fallon starring on the defensive end in Thursday’s win.

Magherini and his team will have one more chance to add to their historic season on Sunday, when Ranney takes on Montclair Kimberley Academy in the Non-Public B championship game at Franklin High School. With one more goal, Magherini would become the third player in the Shore this season to reach 30 goals, joining Colts Neck junior Sean Moore (30) and Point Pleasant Beach junior Brody Powers (32).

Ranney senior Eddie Magherini. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - Ranney Eddie Magherini

Ranney senior Eddie Magherini. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

“Losing Saeed to graduation, Eddie really put the team on his back,” Gray said. “If you look at it, he was impactful the entire season. Saeed had his moments last year where he would score in bunches. Eddie was consistently scoring all year. He broke the school record, he is going to Gettysburg, and for him, I think you’re talking about one of the greatest seasons in Ranney history.”

MKA defeated Gill St. Bernard’s, 3-2, after a round of penalty kicks to break the deadlock, which helps Ranney avoid a rematch against a Gill side that beat the Panthers, 6-0, in Ranney’s season opener. Gill St. Bernard’s was, arguably, the best team on a Ranney schedule that also included games against Holmdel, Ocean, St. John Vianney and Marlboro. Those four matches were all losses, but the Panthers were competitive on the scoreboard in all but one, and a number of missed opportunities at Holmdel precluded the Hornets blowing the game open in a 4-0 win.

“I think we have a pretty good shot,” Magherini said. “Obviously, Gill and MKA are great teams. If we just play our game, stay compact, I think we’ll have a good shot. It’s a state final so it just depends how the ball rolls sometimes. We’re just glad to be going.”

With a Shore Conference Class B Central championship — the first outright division title for Ranney as a member of the Shore Conference — and a sectional championship already in the bank, Sunday is bonus time for a Ranney squad that has already made history at the school.

“We had goals: to win B Central, make the Shore Conference Tournament, win states,” Magherini said. “We thought those were realistic goals for this year. Now that we won the sectional, it shows we have a great coaching staff and a great group of guys.”

“It was a chance to gauge how good we are,” Gray said of the season-opener test vs. Gill St. Bernard’s. “I honestly think that game set us up for the season. You get mercied in your first game, it’s rough. Granted, Gill is a great team, but at the same time, in these settings, maybe we come back and get a little redemption. If anything, I’m just glad they get a chance to compete at a statewide scale, which is huge for the school.”

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