CBA Soccer Pays Back Middletown South for Early A North Upper-Hand

MIDDLETOWN — September is not the month for the most important wins of a high-school soccer season, but in some cases, it is a good time to avenge last year’s defeats.

Championships in boys soccer are the standard at Christian Brothers Academy, but even though those will not officially be won until October and November, the Colts on Tuesday had a chance to pay back a team that took one away from them last fall.

CBA played with a purpose in its home-opener Tuesday against Middletown South, scoring 92 seconds into the match and pulling away for a 3-1 win over an Eagles squad that beat the Colts in last year’s Shore Conference Tournament semifinals on the way to winning their first SCT championship.

Senior Justin Arias assisted each of CBA’s first two goals, including senior John Little’s header less than two minutes into the match, and capped the scoring with a goal in the 65th minute. Along with senior goalkeeper Brady Lepore and senior midfielder Matt Papagni, Arias is one of three starters back from last year’s CBA team that won the Class A North division championship and earned the No. 1 seed in the Shore Conference Tournament, but lost a 2-1 classic vs. Middletown South in the SCT semifinal round in Neptune.

“We definitely played with a chip on our shoulder,” Arias said. “They knocked us out (of the Shore Conference Tournament) last year and we definitely feel like we deserved to be in the final and competing for trophies. We didn’t get it done last year, but we got the win today, and that’s all that matters right now.”

Little also made an impact with four goals while mostly coming off the bench as a junior in 2025 and he made an early imprint on CBA’s revenge win Tuesday. The Colts — who entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Shore Sports Insider Boys Soccer Top 10 — earned a free kick from 30 yards out on the right side and after Middletown South’s wall blocked the kick, Arias tracked it down, knifed his way into the box and ripped a deflected shot toward the goal. Little beat the crowd in the box to the ball and headed it past Middletown South senior goalkeeper Liam McGrath for the game’s first goal with 38:28 showing on the scoreboard at Dan Keane Field.

“We wanted to set the tone early, score early, bring intensity to the game,” Arias said. “Just beat them and beat them by a lot. That set the tone for us the rest of the game.”

No. 1 CBA needs all of 92 seconds to take a 1-0 lead on No. 4 Middletown South. John Little with the header finish. pic.twitter.com/iNtXOoB8Yh

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) September 8, 2026

“That was a point of emphasis,” CBA coach Tom Mulligan said. “The first three matches of the season, we have tried to look at our warm-ups and our mental approach to the match and it seems like it’s taking us the first 15-to-20 minutes of the match to get going and put it into gear. We have been a slow-starter for whatever reason, but I think today, we learned our lesson from those previous matches because we came out from the very first whistle. We talked about stepping on the field and putting our stamp on the game and that’s the way we want to play on our field.”

No. 4 ranked Middletown South hit right back in the seventh minute with the fourth goal in two games from senior Connor Saul. After scoring a team-high 16 goals as a junior, Saul opened his senior season with a hat trick in the Eagles’ 5-0 win over Holmdel on Sept. 2 and followed that up with a blast from inside the 18-yard box following a short throw-in that got him the ball with space to operate.

“Middletown South is going to be a contender by the end of the season,” Mulligan said. “They have some really nice players. Saul scored a great goal, so this is a good early season win for us.”

Saul’s goal was the last shot Middletown South took before halftime, as the Colts took control of the game with high pressure from their back line and midfielders and eventually turned it into a second goal in the 22nd minute. Arias received a throw-in along the right end-line and slipped a pass to the front of the goal, where senior Alexander Alvarez tapped it in for a 2-1 CBA lead.

“With the talent we lost last year, we compensate for it by playing as a team,” Arias said. “We use all the summer practice and the fitness in the spring, we used that to give us an edge going into this year.”

Middletown South cut into CBA’s possession advantage in the second half but still found shots hard to come by in its push to level the score. In the 66th minute, senior Liam Wheeler broke free of the defense on a run toward the goal and slid a pass back to Arias, who carried the ball to his right, cut back to the left and ripped a shot to the lower side netting inside the far-right post.

“Their defense was diving in a lot,” Arias said. “I thought it was key to just take my time, wait for them to dive in, take touches around them, create space for myself or my teammates and set up goals.”

 

Justin Arias finishes a crucial 3rd goal for CBA to extend the lead on Midd South to 3-1. Big game for Arias, who assisted the first 2 goals. pic.twitter.com/S2pVnganqG

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) September 8, 2026

Arias has already eclipsed his 2025 goal total by scoring his second goal of the season on Tuesday. Although he only scored one goal as a junior, Arias was a weapon on the wing and helped produce a lot more goals, including eight of them with assists.

“As a senior now, I want to lead by example — not only on the field, but off the field,” Arias said. “I want to show my teammates what it means to be part of this program, to continue the tradition we have built over the years.”

CBA’s defense and Lepore closed out the performance, with Lepore recording two saves on five Middletown South shots. CBA is starting a new back line, with six of Tuesday’s starters cycling to the defense at one point or another in the match. Freshman Carter Fox and sophomore Landon Valentine are two underclassmen on the defense, with seniors Stephen Cook, Hunter Hueth and Chase Kowalczyk, plus junior Romeo Guida all invovled as well.

In Mulligan’s 10 prior seasons at the helm, CBA has won four Shore Conference Tournament championships, including three straight from 2021 t0 2023. The Colts went four years without winning one, which included the 2020 season in which there was no Shore Conference Tournament held. This year, CBA is hoping to get back to the head of the Shore after losing in the championship game in 2024 and in the semifinals last year.

“We have a lot of very good players all over the park and we haven’t really figured out who is going to step up and carry us in certain moments of the match,” Mulligan said. “Today, I think it was Justin to a certain degree. John (Little) always gives us a great effort. I think our defenders were pretty cohesive as a unit as well.”

The program has also claimed three overall NJSIAA Non-Public A championships and six South Jersey sectional titles during the same stretch, with the last of the state titles coming in 2022 and the last sectional title coming in 2023.

“I think this team has the potential to do something special,” Arias said. “This team is no different than some of the teams of the past. We all want to win and we know what to do to get it done.”