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Absolute Zero: Early Goal, Defense Carry Trinity Hall to First Shore Conference Final

Matt Manley|October 23, 2025|Last Updated October 23, 2025

NEPTUNE — The way the Trinity Hall soccer team has played defense this season and especially during the Shore Conference Tournament, a goal 10 minutes into the tournament semifinal against Howell Thursday at Memorial Field in Neptune had to feel like the clinching play in the game, even with 70 minutes remaining.

On the flip side, playing for a program that had never been to the quarterfinal round of the SCT prior to this year and facing an opponent that has played in the last two championship games, Trinity Hall’s players were taking nothing for granted.

Thanks to an early goal by senior Caroline Ferguson and a dominant display of defense and possession in the second half, the Monarchs — seeded No. 10 in the Shore Conference Tournament — held off third-seeded Howell, 1-0, to advance to the SCT championship game for the first time in school history. The victory was also the team’s fifth straight shutout, with the last four of those clean sheets coming during this unprecedented SCT run for the school now in its 13th year as a high school and 10th year on the Tinton Falls campus.

“When I came here five years ago, the program was still kind of in its infant stages and not recognized around the state,” fifth-year Trinity Hall coach Patrick Trombetta said. “I would go to state games and people would ask me, ‘Where is Trinity Hall?’ So each year, we have been gradually building the program and lifting the program. A lot of quality kids are coming here to play and I think then results speak for themselves today.

“The quality of the upperclassmen and the underclassmen, and the senior leadership on this team is what got us here. (Reaching the SCT final) is not something I’m totally surprised about because I knew coming into the season we had a special group.”

Playing in its first semifinal as a program against a Howell side playing in the program’s fourth straight SCT semifinal, Trinity Hall seized control of the game during the opening 10 minutes and cashed in on a quality opportunity early in the 10th minute. Junior Danielle Connors slipped the ball through the defense to Ferguson, who ran onto the ball on the right side of the 18-yard box, surveyed her options against Howell goalkeeper Leila Shaw and one-timed a low shot to the far side netting for a 1-0 Monarchs lead.

“For us, scoring first was important in this game,” Trombetta said. “It obviously puts the pressure on (Howell) and it probably took them out of their attack plan, because they started cutting the field in half on us, which created more space for us in the offensive end.”

“I saw an opening through the center and Danielle Connors is so good with the ball at her feet,” Ferguson said. “She handed it to me on a silver platter. I didn’t have to do anything. I just saw an opening in the corner and tapped it in.

“We got a little nervous because we still had a whole game to go without letting up a goal. I think it helped the momentum too because we came out hard after that. We shifted a little bit more defensively after that, but we were able to keep getting up the field. It was good to have that safety net for the majority of the game.”

Playing an outside midfield spot, Ferguson began the season by scoring three goals in her team’s first four games and had five goals after play on Oct. 1. She had not recorded a goal in the tournament stage of the SCT, but picked an opportune time to break her personal drought with a pinpoint finish in the opening 10 minutes of Thursday’s match.

“It was great to see Caroline score,” Trombetta said. “She started off the season hot and hasn’t scored much in the last three or four weeks, but she is always a threat with that speed. There is no replacing that speed and she puts a lot of pressure on the defense with that speed.”

The Monarchs withstood a wave of possession in the final 20 minutes of the first half and responded with a dominant second-half that limited Howell to two shots. Howell’s best chance to score in the second half came in the 78th minute, but Trinity Hall turned the Rebels away on their first corner kick of the game. Shortly thereafter, the Trinity players were celebrating another SCT win and moving to within one more win of their first tournament championship.

“We talked about at halftime switching the field and seeing our channels out wide, because that’s what we like to do a lot: play out wide to our outside mids because we’ve got some speed on the outside,” Ferguson said. “We just did a good job. We didn’t play too defensively in the middle. We kept playing our game. We didn’t want to think about the goal – just play like it’s zero-zero and try to get another one.”

Trombetta made a personnel adjustment to combat Howell forwards Makenzie Memmolo and Isabella Farinick, shifting junior Grace Greene from the outside midfield to the back line as a marking back.

“Grace is our best marking player and we know how strong Memmolo and Farinick are on Howell, so we made that tactical adjustment and Grace Green did a great job on Farinick,” Trombetta said.

Trinity Hall has typically started three freshman on the defense but it was only two — Ryane Greene and Ryann Russo — on Thursday with Grace Greene and senior center back Elizabeth Chiles playing in front of senior goalkeeper Emily Venezia.

“As a freshman group, they are pretty mature,” Trombetta said. “They have a lot of game experience throughout the season, so they have played in a lot of big games. Today, you couldn’t tell they were freshman on the field. They played very well.”

“They might be freshmen in the hallways, but everyone has an equal voice on the field,” Ferguson said of the freshman influence on the defense. “They are not afraid to yell at me to get back if I’m sitting too high. It comes down to communication: we build each other up, no negative talk on the field, and we just trust in everyone’s ability.”

Trinity Hall also got a lift with the return of senior defensive center midfielder Ryan Raynor, who missed each of the last two SCT rounds due to injury. Raynor was a fifth defender for the portion of the second half that followed the goal, then played the more traditional midfield spot while leaving the defense to the Monarchs’ back four.

The Monarchs are still playing without starting senior midfielder and captain Maris Child, who Trombetta said is recovering from a sprained MCL in her knee. Trombetta and his team settled for the return of one captain on Thursday and will hope for another at some point before the season ends.

“It’s a big difference because she composed in the middle,” Trombetta said of Raynor. “She is our transition player. We build with her and every goes through her in the middle, so getting her back was key.”

Trinity Hall has yet to allow a goal during the Shore Conference Tournament, with the defense and Venezia posting their fifth straight shutout — four of which have come during tournament play. During its 16-2-2 season, Trinity Hall has allowed six goals for a sparkling 0.3 per game and every one of its 16 wins, plus one of the two ties, has been a shutout for a total of 17 on the year.

“Our defense is absolutely phenomenal,” Ferguson said. “They keep us in the games. We have such strong backs and the confidence they give us is huge. We have a young team – it’s like fifty-fifty – and our outside backs are freshmen, so everyone builds each other up. That’s how we can shut them out: by just remaining confident and not seeing grade levels on the team. We communicate on the field and have each other’s backs.”

To reach the SCT semifinals, the Monarchs survived a penalty shootout at second-seeded Central Regional on Tuesday in which Trinity Hall not only shut out the Golden Eagles over 100 minutes but also kept them off the board in the shootout, winning it, 3-0.

Next up for Trinity Hall is top-seeded Manalapan, which needed two second-half goals to rally for a 2-1 win over No. 13 Rumson-Fair Haven in the second semifinal on Thursday night. Ferguson and her new teammates did not know which team they would be facing while gathered after their landmark win earlier in the evening, referring to Manalapan as a “new threat” given that the teams have not yet met this season and Trinity Hall had already defeated Rumson, 1-0.

The prospect of facing a 15-0 Braves team seeking its first conference title since 1988 in the final did not alter how the Monarchs are viewing the opportunity.

“Whatever the result is, I’m so happy we were able to make it there, especially with this group,” Ferguson said. “We never even made it to the quarterfinals, so making the championship is a dream come true, especially in my senior year.”

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