Youth soccer team in light-blue uniforms high-fiving on a turf field; numbers 12 and 3 visible on backs.

Raider Motivator: Title-Hungry Toms River East Boys Soccer Starts Strong

Matt Manley|September 5, 2026|Last Updated September 5, 2026

TOMS RIVER — The Toms River East boys soccer team has tasted regular-season success in recent years and after winning the Shore Conference Class A South division championship and reaching the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III semifinals in back-to-back seasons, this year’s group of Raiders wants more.

No state championships will be awarded in September, but the Raiders had a chance Saturday to prove themselves against a team that has won postseason trophies in back-to-back years while taking their first step toward a second straight Class A South title.

Sophomore Jack Gillen and senior Sam Los each scored a second-half goal and Toms River East — ranked No. 6 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 — notched its second shutout to open the season in defeating Southern Regional, 2-0, in the Class A South division opener for both teams.

“Our mentality is pretty simple: just keep working hard,” Los said. “We don’t care who we are facing, whether it’s a team that hasn’t won a game or hasn’t lost yet. We go into every game with the same mentality every time and just keep trying to get better. I feel like if we stick with that, we’ll always have a chance to win.”

Southern won the 2024 NJSIAA Group IV championship and followed that up by winning the South Jersey Group IV sectional title for a second straight year in the fall of 2025. The Rams were also the first team to beat Toms River East during the 2025 season after the Raiders won their first nine games, but Toms River East still went on to win the division championship.

“We were really motivated to come back and beat them,” Toms River East senior center back Brady Gillen said. “That was a tough loss last year, so we wanted to score as much as we could, keep attacking in the midfield and we go the job done.”

Toms River East owns a decided edge over Southern in returning starters, with Los among them. Jack Gillen, meanwhile, saw a small dose of varsity action as a freshman and in two games to start his sophomore year, he already has three goals. Gillen scored two goals in the season-opening, 5-0 win over East Brunswick before breaking the scoreless tie with his goal in the 50th minute on Saturday.

“It’s added a lot of depth,” Los said of Jack Gillen’s emergence. “Last year, we really only had two guys who scored most of the goals in Aiden Reis and myself. Now, we have at least five or six players who look like they are going to be contributing goals.”

“He spent pretty much the entire year on the freshman team and scored twenty goals,” Toms River East coach Mike Konopka said. “They really helped his confidence. Now he is a year older, he has put on some muscle and you see how dangerous he can be. He is strong, he knows the game, so it adds a whole different dimension to our attack.”

“He is always playing soccer,” said Brady — the leading scorer on Toms River East’s basketball team in each of the past two seasons — said of his younger brother. “I’m more of a basketball players, so whenever I’m going to basketball, he is going to soccer. He is always working on his game, he is always scoring goals for his club team, so he is just taking it from one field to another.”

Both teams went scoreless through one half as Toms River East continued to intensify its push to score as the second half started. In the 50th minute, Jack Gillen gained position against his defender, won the ball just outside the six-yard box near the right post, and ripped a low shot into the far-left corner for a 1-0 Raiders lead.

 

Brady Gillen was a steady presence on Toms River East’s back line and also reprised his role as one of the team’s best offensive weapons via his powerful, long throw-in.

“Being a multi-sport athlete, I found out a little technique that helps me throw it farther,” Gillen said. “I don’t want to give away my secrets, but I figured it out last year and stuck to it. It’s like having a corner kick on every throw-in.”

“Brady played in the back last year and he is a floor general,” Konopka said. “He gets that from playing basketball. He organizes not only himself, but the whole team. You can’t teach that. That’s invaluable to a team.”

In the 77th minute, Brady Gillen’s avalanche of throw-ins final yielded a goal. Gillen’s throw 40 yards from the end-line bounced to the far side of the box, where Los beat the defense to the ball and fired a low shot to the far-right corner of the net.

 

Los has become used to benefiting from Gillen’s throw-ins, which have become the highlight of any opposing scouting report of Toms River East. Los scored 11 goals last year while Gillen racked up 10 assists in 2025.

“He threw one to the back post during practice last year, and we were like, ‘Wait, where did that come from?,'” Konopka said. “Last year, it was a surprise to a lot of teams, but this year, people know it’s coming. We’re trying to come up with new ways to get the ball in the box using that throw-in.”

“It’s like having a corner every time we get a throw-in in that part of the field,” Los said. “You just put players near the back post and make our runs in. The goalie isn’t always going to pick it up and as long as we are making runs into the box and we can get a head on it, it’s a major weapon.”

Brady Gillen and the Raiders defense limited Southern’s opportunities, but the Rams did break through for one quality chance late in the second half. Junior George Katsianis shook free of the defense and hammered a clean shot toward the lower left of the frame, but sophomore Mike Peck made a diving stop for a save in the 73rd minute with the game still 1-0.

For the second straight game, Peck and fellow sophomore Connor Minelli split the game and combined on a shutout. Through two matches, Toms River East has outscored its opponents, 7-0.

“Neither one of them has shown that they deserve to play over the other so far,” Konopka said of the goalkeeper situation. “They have both been really good. Connor came up with a big save against East Brunswick and today, Michael make that great save to protect the lead. We have a lot of confidence in both of them, so we’re going to keep riding both guys.”

With its Class A South title defense off to a strong start, Toms River East will attempt to take another significant step toward a second straight outright division title Tuesday, when the Raiders host No. 8 Toms River North. From 2020 to 2004, Toms River North won three straight division titles, but Toms River East beat the Mariners last season to clinch the division championship.

“We have 22 guys on the roster and every single one of them can start at any moment,” Konopka said. “If someone falls off, there is someone else that can come in and do the job. That keeps the level of training high and I think it keeps everybody motivated to come ready to work every single day.”

“We have a bunch of dogs and we all want to win,” Brady Gillen said.

As for the postseason success that has eluded the Raiders, they will continue to build toward the Shore Conference and South Jersey Group III Tournaments. The Raiders’ 2024 and 2025 seasons both ended in the sectional semifinal round and taking the next step in the state tournament is the ultimate goal for a team that has never won a Shore Conference Tournament title and has not won a sectional championship since 1985.

“I had a couple of my seniors come into my classroom in June and say, ‘This is our year,'” Konopka said. “The mindset was already out there before we even saw them. That’s not coming from the coaches. These seniors want to be the group that breaks through.”

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