Squan D-Block: Manasquan Defense Delivers First-Round Bye in Win vs. CBA

MANASQUAN — There are multiple ingredients that make a great defense in soccer, but no elite defense in any sport is complete without a good nickname.

On Tuesday, when Christian Brothers Academy paid a visit to Manasquan in the final leg of the Boys Soccer Shore Conference Tournament group stage, CBA was introduced to Manasquan’s lockdown defense with the name to match: the D-Block.

For 80 minutes, Manasquan’s D-Block and senior goalkeeper Quinn Petrulla kept one of the Shore’s most potent attacks off the board and senior Adam Rodricks put the game away with a breakaway goal in the 77th minute to cap a 2-0 Manasquan win over the No. 2 team in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10.

Tuesday’s win clinches Manasquan first place in Group 1 of the SCT, which guarantees the Warriors a first-round bye when the knockout stage of the tournament begins next week. As the No. 6 team in the SSI Top 10 and with wins over three other first-place finishers in group play (Ocean Township, Shore Regional and Middletown South), Manasquan is also positioned to land a top-four seed, which would mean the Warriors would not have to play away from their home field until the semifinal round at Memorial Field in Neptune.

“Our defense is our strength,” Rodricks said. “It’s a really tight group of guys and they are really vocal, which helps. They help each other a lot. That vocal connection is what makes them the D-Block.”

 

Adam Rodricks breaks loose on a counterattack and extends Manasquan’s lead on CBA to 2-0 with 3:20 left. https://t.co/OpZRIVSyw3

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 6, 2026

CBA owned a decided edge in corner kicks and an 8-5 edge in shots, but Manasquan crowded the Colts on a home field with limited surface area, which prevented the Colts from spacing their formation to their liking.

“We knew this game wasn’t going to be pretty,” Manasquan coach Zach Savacool said. “We have some really talented boys who were able to execute what we were trying to do and they did an excellent job. They (CBA) didn’t really have any clear-cut chances in the air and we were lucky enough to get the first one. They had to send numbers forward and Adam had a great finish on a breakaway.”

Juniors Travis Levy and Renzo Lucarelli manned the middle of the defense and outside defenders John Visceglia and Alex Lapitzski were integral in slowing CBA’s stable of crafty, speedy wing players.

“We talked about where they needed to be positionally and to work together to take away (CBA’s) strength, which we thought were their wide players,” Savacool said. “Once we got the ball, we talked about adjusting field position. It’s not about beating your man, it’s how we get the whole team up the field — whether it’s winning a foul, winning a throw-in so we can adjust where the game is being played.”

As for the scoring, Manasquan took advantage of a CBA mistake in the 27th to establish a 1-0 lead in the first half. Senior defender Renzo Lucarelli booted a free kick from 50 yards out into the box and CBA senior winger Justin Arias attempted to head the ball away, but knocked it past his goalkeeper Brady Lepore and into the net for an own goal.

Halftime in the final leg of the group stage: Manasquan 1, CBA 0. Squan scored on this own goal in the 28th, with Renzo Lucarelli serving the free kick. https://t.co/IO4ZXzHizc

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 6, 2026

Manasquan withstood CBA’s push to equalize and also picked its opportunities to counter with the second goal, which nearly came before Rodricks final goal. Senior midfielder and Warriors leading scorer Luke Byrne got a clean shot from the corner of the six-yard box in the 64th minute, but Lepore saved it to keep the CBA deficit at one.

“The whole point of defending is to attack,” Savacool said. “When we do win the ball, we talk about how best to do that and then once it’s won, the most important pass after a turnover is the first pass, so we talked about where that needs to go and the runs that need to be made to make sure we move up the field together.”

In the 77th, Manasquan defended a CBA free kick and on a recycled ball into the box, junior center fullback Travis Levy headed the ball out of his team’s defensive third. Rodricks beat CBA’s last defender to the ball and was off the raced, dribbling all the way to the top of the box and slipping a shot past Lepore and in for the clinching goal.

“One-nothing is a dangerous game,” Rodricks said. “They can score at anytime, so the goal was to make it two. We just had to keep playing our game: stay composed, calm, cool and collected.”

Over the final three minutes, Manasquan finished off its sixth clean sheet of the season and 11th game with no more than one goal allowed. In those 11 games, Manasquan is 10-0-1.

In its losses to Freehold Township and Southern Regional, Manasquan has allowed four goals in each — both on the road and both on grass fields. Manasquan is all but guaranteed to avoid grass pitches during the Shore Conference Tournament.

“Considering how terrible we have been on grass, it is really, really nice that we’ll get to play at home on our field and Neptune, if we get there,” Savacool said. “The bye is huge, home field is huge. It’s a long season and our roster is big, but we’re a small team. We need to keep everyone fit to be competitive.”

“This is a tough field to score on, for us and other teams,” Rodricks said of Manasquan’s home pitch. “It’s very narrow, so it makes it harder to attack and easier to defend. Getting a goal is important, because then you can really defend.

“It’s going to be huge (playing at home). We get to rest up the guys. We would have been fine playing because we’re confident in ourselves, but it’s nice to have a bye.”