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Ball is Life: Manasquan’s Basketball Star Delivers Game-Winner in Boys Soccer Opener

Matt Manley|September 4, 2025|Last Updated October 15, 2025

STAFFORD TWP. — When Rey Weinseimer was lying on an athletic trainer’s cart at Colts Neck High School last September, unable to move his left hip after awkwardly jamming his leg into the ground, most of his Manasquan teammates had to figure that was the last soccer game they would play with him.

The First-Team All-Shore guard for the state championship-winning Manasquan boys basketball team avoided a serious injury and made it back to the hardwood in time to turn in a special sophomore season, but returning to the soccer field in 2025 surely was too much of a risk.

That, however, was not how Weinseimer — or any other Manasquan athlete — is conditioned to view such a situation. Playing for Manasquan’s basketball team made him appreciate the importance of role players and school spirit. While he starred for the Warriors on the court, he wanted to help his classmates by doing the hard work on the pitch.

“My parents didn’t love the idea of me playing (soccer),” Weinseimer said about his family’s concern about getting back out on the field ahead of basketball season. “But we talked to them. The people at Elite Sports (Physical Therapy) helped me recover and at RYPT (Reach Your Potential Training), they did a great job. It’s great to be back and I’m having a lot of fun.”

In Manasquan’s opener, Weinseimer did the unheralded work of a defender and also grabbed the headline with a game-winning header in the 70th minute as the Warriors upended defending NJSIAA Group IV champion Southern Regional, 2-1, in the season opener for both teams.

“This is definitely what we wanted. We wanted to come out with a big test,” Weinseimer said. “They’re obviously a great team. They won a Group IV state championship last year, and we lost 22 seniors or something like that. I feel like we were kind of written off, but this is what we wanted. We wanted a chance to show what we can do.”

On Manasquan’s basketball team in 2024-25, Weinseimer was the top scorer as a sophomore and will be the only member of the Shore Sports Insider All-Shore First Team returning this season. On the soccer field, Manasquan has its own star in returning All-Shore striker Cruz Farkas, who went scoreless on Wednesday but created havoc for Southern in the form of five shots — including three on frame.

“In basketball, we win because everybody plays their role,” Weinseimer said. “On the soccer pitch, it’s the same thing: it’s knowing my role and helping my team in any way I can.”

“We’re a young team, we’re hungry,” Farkas said. “It’s all fun. I think the hunger is similar (to last year). We might even have more this year. And everyone plays their position well.”

This year’s Manasquan team is looking to build a new group of role players around Farkas, and Weinseimer is one of nine new starters already embracing their jobs. Weinseimer played on Manasquan’s three-man back line and served as the throw-in specialist, which led to both of Manasquan’s goals.

“I think you have to give a lot of credit to our guys for earning those corners and those throw-ins,” Weinseimer said. “Adam (Rodricks), especially, did a great job earning so many of those corners and throws. I think as a group, we played really good together and that’s a really big thing for this team, because this is a really close group of guys.”

With the score tied, 1-1, Weinseimer launched a throw into the box. When the ball came back to him, he worked to earn a corner kick. Fellow junior Kai Lomas took the corner kick and served it to the far left post, where Weinseimer gained position and slammed a header inside the left post with 10:19 showing on the clock.

“I know I’m not the most skilled player out there,” Weinseimer said. “Kind of like what (former soccer, basketball and lacrosse player) Brandon (Kunz) did in basketball — just be everywhere and run around like crazy. That’s what I did, and I think that helped our team out.”

“It was awesome to see Rey come back,” Farkas said. “We all wanted him to play and it’s great that he’s out here with us.”

“To see him love the sport, love the guys so much — he wants to be here, he puts in the work in practice — it just motivates everybody around him,” first-year head coach Zach Savacool said of Weinseimer. “He’s a fantastic athlete, fantastic defender, and he’s a huge weapon going forward as well.”

Southern grabbed the lead in the ninth minute thanks to a defensive miscue by Manasquan, which allowed senior Tyler Houghton to collect the ball behind the defense and tap in his shot for a 1-0 lead for the reigning Group IV champions. Southern was also playing its first game with a new head coach, as former Holmdel coach John Nacarlo took over a team that graduated seven starters.

For the final 20 minutes of the half, Manasquan flooded Southern’s end with its attack, and it yielded the tying goal just before intermission. Weinseimer unleashed a throw-in into the box and sophomore Travis Levy won the ball out of the air. Senior Quinn Juska — the other returning starter along with Farkas — attempted to center the ball, and it deflected off a Southern defender and into Levy’s area. The sophomore volleyed the ball out of the air, glancing a shot off another Southern defender and into the goal for the tying goal with under a minute to go in the half.

After Southern’s goal, Manasquan outshot Southern, 12-2 and finished with a 14-3 edge in shots, including 6-2 on goal.

“We’ve got a really aggressive group of boys,” Savacool said. “They love to scrap, so sometimes you have to rein that in. On the bus, we just told them to keep their heads, stay on the field and we’ll have a chance, because we have good players, good speed, good size.”

Farkas nearly made the score 3-1 within a minute of Weinseimer’s goal, but Southern junior goalkeeper Kyle Sininsky smothered the attempt — the first of two saves Sininsky made on shots by Farkas in the final nine minutes. Junior Luke Byrne followed up the Sininsky save in the 71st with a shot that grazed the left post.

After avoiding conceding the insurance goal, Southern got off one final shot on net, but Warriors junior goalkeeper Quinn Petrulla — also a first-year starter — stopped it and covered it with just over a minute to go.

Although Farkas ended the game still looking to score his first goal of 2025 after putting up 14 a year ago, he showed how dangerous he will be up top while also playing his new role of senior captain.

“I think he’s always been a really good guy who leads by example,” Savacool said. “He’s captain this year, and it’s been easy to put responsibility on him. He shows up early, he cleans up, helps with the gear, he’s a role model for the boys. He’s always listening and always ready to do the next thing, so this new role that he has is completely natural to him.”

With the class of 2025 leading the way, Manasquan reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II championship game in 2023 and finished No. 7 in the final Shore Sports Insider Top 10 in 2024. This year’s team will have to forge its own path, which it is doing with Savacool now directing the program after coaching sub-varsity at Manasquan under prior head coach Tom McGill.

Farkas was one of the few non-seniors to make an impact on last year’s team, and now he finds himself leading the way as one of the few seniors in the lineup.

“He is a great leader,” Farkas said of Savacool. “He did very well coming into this year with a different group of kids. He did coach them the past few years, but now that we’re all together at the varsity level, it’s been great.”

 

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