2026 Boys Soccer NJSIAA Tournament Preview: The Shore in Group 2

In the 42 years in which the Shore Conference Tournament was contested, eight public school teams have won the SCT championship, then gone on to win a sectional championship. This year, Manasquan will look to become the ninth after winning its first ever Shore Conference Tournament title. A sectional crown would be just as special for the Warriors, who have never won a sectional championship in boys soccer but have already broke through one ceiling. The Manasquan players and coaches need not look too far into history for precedent: Middletown South won the Central Group III title after winning its first ever SCT championship in 2025. The last time a Shore team won both the SCT and an overall Group III title was Ocean in Group III in 2018.

A Manasquan magic carpet ride to the final day of the season would be compelling, but this is Group II. There are a long list of contenders, many of which are from the Shore. In Central Jersey alone, there are four teams from the Shore that have won a sectional championship since 2019: Ocean, Rumson-Fair Haven, Wall and Holmdel.

Manasquan is hoping to join that list of Group II sectional champions from the Shore and so are Lacey and Barnegat in South Jersey. Lacey has not won a sectional championship since 1992, while Barnegat had not won a title of any kind until the Bengals wrapped up the Shore Conference Class C South division championship in late September.

Central Jersey Group II

Shore Teams in the Field: No. 1 Manasquan, No. 3 Ocean, No. 6 Rumson-Fair Haven, No. 8 Wall, No. 11 Holmdel, No. 15 Point Pleasant Boro, No. 16 Raritan
No. 1 Seed: Manasquan
Defending Champion: Robbinsville (No. 2 in Central Group III)

Favorite: Manasquan. Manasquan has already had its best season ever as a program, taking a 15-2-1 record, a Shore Conference Tournament championship and the No. 1 seed into the start of tournament play on Wednesday. The Warriors did not play a game between their SCT championship win over CBA and the first-round game vs. Raritan, so there could be some rust to shake off after some well-deserved rest. Manasquan has been nails at home this season, where the Warriors could truly beat anybody. On the other hand, the way Manasquan plays, they also tend to play close games, which means they could also be beat by a sideways bounce.

Dark Horse: Holmdel. The Shore Conference Coaches Cup has been a launching pad for teams in the NJSIAA Tournament, with both Holmdel and Long Branch winning both a Coaches Cup and sectional championship in consecutive years and Shore Regional winning the 2022 Central Group I title after losing in the Coaches Cup final. Holmdel captured its second Coaches Cup crown in four years on Oct. 24 and will now try to build upon that tournament success by making a run in Central Group II. The Hornets battled injuries and a brutal Class A North schedule during the season and are now playing like a team that has benefitted from those early-season battles. They are also healthier now, which means Holmdel is ready to take its best shot at a championship against a deep, dangerous pool of teams.

A year ago, the November Cinderella in Group II was Wall, which made it all the way to the Central Group III sectional final as a No. 11 seed thanks to three thrilling road victories. This year’s Crimson Knights have done more regular-season winning, but after dropping to Class B North, that is also the product of an easier schedule. Still, Wall has been improving throughout the season and have already faced Manasquan once this year. If the two teams should meet again in the quarterfinals, it would fall under the category of a rivalry game in which all assumptions should be discarded.

The last two seeds in the section are from the Shore and both will be considerable underdogs in any game they play. Point Boro has shown it can knock off an unsuspecting favorite, which is what the Panthers will have to do in a first-round matchup at No. 2 Bordentown. Point Boro took down reigning Group III runner-up Middletown South in a game the Panthers had to win in order to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament. Raritan, meanwhile, will have to solve Manasquan in the first round, which is not a hopeless endeavor since Raritan has enough scoring to make things interesting if the No. 1 seed is struggling to piece together an attack after more than a week-and-a-half between games.

Bracket Breakdown: Manasquan and Bordentown are the chalk picks to reach the final, but there is some major championship pedigree standing in the way of both. Ocean is the last Group III champion from the Shore Conference and one of those aforementioned recent teams to win the overall Group title after winning the Shore Conference Tournament. The Spartans have not won a sectional title since that season, but have the talent, senior leadership and game experience this year to make a run to the final.

No. 4 Allentown has not won a sectional championship since 2013, but like Manasquan, the Redbirds enter the state tournament already a champion. Allentown beat Lawrence, Robbinsville and Notre Dame in consecutive rounds to capture the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament championship, which means a potential semifinal of Allentown at Manasquan would pit the Shore and CVC champions against one another. Before that happens, Allentown will likely have to fend off a Delran program with an overflow of sectional and group championships in its trophy case. The Bears won eight consecutive South Jersey championships in Group II from 2015 to 2023, including overall state titles in 2021 and 2022.

Finally, there is Rumson, which broke through for its first sectional title in 2021 and has been a consistently competitive team despite a young roster and a very challenging schedule. The first-round draw of Holmdel is a dangerous one, but if the Bulldogs can survive that, they have already earned draws this season vs. Ocean and Manasquan and their last game before the state tournament was a 4-2 win over Toms River East – the No. 1 seed in South Group III.

Prediction: Manasquan over Ocean. Winning a sectional championship after going the distance in the Shore Conference Tournament is an exceedingly difficult feat, although for a different reason now than in years past. Up until 2017, the Shore Conference Tournament ended on the Saturday before the state tournament began, which forced public-school teams that made it to the final to play two or three days later in the first round. Now, the problem is the opposite: coming off the high (or low) of winning (or losing) the championship, teams have to restart their collective engine for another tournament after the adrenaline fades over a week of practices, pick-up games and, in some cases, celebrations.

Good thing for Manasquan that the Warriors will be running into an Allentown team that is also trying to follow up its conference title with a long-awaited sectional title. The Redbirds won the CVC championship on Halloween, so their problem is more likely to be fatique than rust, although once the semifinals roll around, both of those teams should be back in rhythm – that is, if both get that far.

Round-by-Round Picks

Opening Round
(1) Manasquan over (16) Raritan
(8) Wall over (9) Governor Livingston
(5) Delran over (12) A.L. Johnson
(4) Allentown over (13) South River
(3) Ocean over (14) Somerville
(11) Holmdel over (6) Rumson-Fair Haven
(7) Spotswood over (10) Metuchen
(2) Bordentown over (15) Point Boro

Quarterfinals
(1) Manasquan over (8) Wall
(4) Allentown over (5) Delran
(3) Ocean over (11) Holmdel
(2) Bordentown over (7) Spotswood

Semifinals
(1) Manasquan over (4) Allentown
(3) Ocean over (2) Bordetown

Championship
(1) Manasquan over (3) Ocean

 

 

South Jersey Group II

Shore Teams in the Field: No. 4 Lacey, No. 7 Barnegat, No. 16 Manchester
No. 1 Seed: Cinnaminson
Defending Champion: Seneca (No. 13 in South Jersey Group III)

Favorite: No. 2 Sterling. The Silver Knights have a fairly clean resume with 11 shutouts this season, so while they don’t light up the scoreboard like some other championship contenders, they don’t usually need to. Scoring two goals against Sterling has been a rarity this year, but of the four times it has happened, Sterling is 1-3. Its 2-0 loss to St. Augustine on Thursday in the South Jersey Coaches Cup semifinal was the only one of Sterling’s three losses that was by more than a one-goal margin.

Dark Horse: No. 9 Haddon Heights. The Heights has gone 13 seasons without a sectional title and with the No. 9 seed, it would not appear this is likely to be the year the Garnets break the drought. Upon closer examination, Haddon Heights has already shown the chops to knock off any team in this section. The Garnets have faced three of the top five seeds twice this season and own a 1-2-2 record against them with a win or draw against each of the three teams: Sterling (0-1-1), No. 3 Haddonfield (0-0-2) and No. 5 West Deptford (1-1-0). Haddon Heights also has scoreless ties vs. perennial group contenders Haddon Township (Group I) and Shawnee (Group III).

Bracket Breakdown: The road to the South Jersey Group III championship is slated to go through Cinnaminson, but the Pirates will have to straighten out their recent uneven play. Cinnaminson opened the season with nine straight wins, but went 2-5-2 over its last nine before handing Manchester in the first round on Monday. The Pirates have not seed Haddon Heights this season and the Garnets, as previously mentioned, can be a pain to play given their stingy defense.

Lacey and West Deptford also reside on that side of the bracket and the Lions are set up nicely for a run at a championship after rolling through No. 13 Pleasantville on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals. With a young team that has continued to improve throughout the season and a stalwart in goal in senior Dylan Graham, Lacey has the ingredients to make this a run to remember, which would be head-scratching after last year began as the year the Lions appeared primed for a breakthrough.

This season has already been a special one for Barnegat, which captured the first division championship in program history by winning the Shore Conference Class C South division. The Bengals don’t have many wins that suggest they will bid for another championship, but they did beat a quality Shore Regional side during the regular season and 40-goal scorer Nate Scisco can be a match-up problem for any team in the field. If Sterling can’t make Barnegat pay on the finishing end, Scisco and Co. could bite the Silver Knights in a potential quarterfinal match.

Prediction: Haddonfield over Lacey. Between the manageable draw, a steady progression throughout the season, and an element of “due” after a hard-luck 2025, Lacey seems primed for a run. If Haddon Heights can knock off Cinnaminson, the Lions could stay at home through the first three rounds and should that happen, that might be enough of an edge for Lacey to take down a couple of quality teams to make it to the final. Unless Scisco can go nuts for Barnegat, it would likely Sterling or Haddonfield awaiting in the final – both of which would host Lacey.

Round-by-Round Picks

Opening Round
(1) Cinnaminson 6, (16) Manchester 0 (Monday)
(9) Haddon Heights over (8) Overbrook
(5) West Deptford over (12) Lower Cape May
(4) Lacey 4, (13) Pleasantville 0 (Tuesday)
(3) Haddonfield over (13) Lindenwold
(11) Cedar Creek over (6) Pennsauken Tech
(7) Barnegat over (10) Middle Twp.
(2) Sterling over (15) Oakcrest

Quarterfinals
(9) Haddon Heights over (1) Cinnaminson
(4) Lacey over (5) West Deptford
(3) Haddonfield over (11) Cedar Creek
(7) Barnegat over (2) Sterling

Semifinals
(4) Lacey over (9) Haddon Heights
(3) Haddonfield over (7) Barnegat

Championship
(3) Haddonfield over (4) Lacey