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Championship Form: Toms River North Wins Coaches Cup

Matt Manley|October 26, 2025|Last Updated October 26, 2025

NEPTUNE — The Toms River North boys soccer team need not look outside its own program for reassurance heading into the NJSIAA Tournament in November, but if the Mariners want to feel even better about their chances at another deep run in the South Jersey Group IV playoffs, reaching the championship game of the Shore Conference Coaches Cup has been a launching pad in each of the past three seasons.

After each of the last two Shore Coaches Cup champions went on to win a sectional championship in November, Toms River North earned a chance to extend that streak to three with a performance that suggests the Mariners are ready for playoff games.

Junior Chris Ruggiero headed in a corner kick by junior Manuele Lubrano in the 32nd minute and Toms River North — the No. 2 seed in the Coaches Cup Tournament — held off No. 1 Shore Regional Saturday at Memorial Field in Neptune to join the list of Coaches Cup champions in the fifth year of the tournament.

The last two champions — Holmdel in 2023 and Long Branch in 2024 — went on to win sectional championships later that year and 2022 Coaches Cup runner-up Shore went on to win the Central Jersey Group I championship. Toms River North will now try to join that esteemed list, but their motivation to win the Coaches Cup was more surface level than it was related to their NJSIAA Tournament prospects.

“The way we looked at it, the Shore Conference Tournament was the Champions League and the Coaches Cup was the Europa League, which has some heavy-hitting teams in the world and all the teams that win it celebrate it,” Toms River North coach Joe Mahon said. “So that’s the way we went about this whole tournament and the kids were having a lot of fun with it.

The Coaches Cup is comprised of teams that fail to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament, which Toms River North did by finishing fourth place behind Toms River South, Marlboro and St. John Vianney in the standings of their SCT group. Only the top three teams in the five-team group advance to the tournament stage of the SCT.

“It was disappointing not getting into Shore Conference, but a trophy is a trophy,” Ruggiero said. “We kept that mentality all the way through. We were a little bit down and I saw my teammates down and just tried to pick them up. I love these boys. They worked hard and this is what we get.”

“It felt like the Shore Conference championship game. It felt like any other championship game, no matter what level it is.”

Toms River North’s struggles in 2025 lie almost entirely at the feet of its struggles to score goals. The Mariners allowed six goals through their first 10 games of the season, but were limited to four goals in that same stretch and went 2-5-3. They ended September with a 4-0 loss at Pingry and a 0-0 draw with Asbury Park in the group stage sealed their fate in the Shore Conference Tournament.

“We have been doing the same thing for the last 15 years, the same attack,” Mahon said. “We just rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and I guess it just took a little bit longer for this group to get going. We have played one of the hardest schedules in the state, so I give them a lot of credit for their grit and their discipline.

“At one point, we were 2-6-5 and we kept watching film and we told them, ‘Guys, we’re getting the better of most of the teams that we are playing. We just can’t finish in the attacking third.’ We just kept grinding: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and now it’s starting to click a little bit.”

Since that tie vs. Asbury Park, Toms River North is 6-1-1 and has twice scored four goals against Class A North division teams, including a 4-1 win over SCT quarterfinalist Marlboro.

“We were just missing that mentality to score,” Ruggiero said. “In practice, we didn’t really have a strong mentality to score and win games. We all wanted to score and we realized one person could be the one to pull the whole team with them. One person could change the whole team’s attitude so we have just been building confidence.”

In the Coaches Cup, the Mariners outscored Red Bank Catholic, Howell and Jackson by a combined total of 10-0 in the first three rounds of the tournament leading up to Saturday’s clash with Shore.

“It was a confidence builder,” Mahon said of the Coaches Cup. “We were able to score some goals, put some wins together and knock the ball and play the way we wanted to play, especially in the earlier rounds.

Both teams threatened in the first five minutes on Saturday, while Toms River North producing two shots from close range that missed the mark and Shore putting the ball in the back of the net after an offsides flag went up. The teams settled in and Toms River North took control of the game for the remainder of the first half, out-shooting Shore 10-1 before halftime.

The Mariners piled up corner-kick opportunities throughout the match and its 32nd minute opportunity proved to be the difference. Lubrano served the ball to the back post and Ruggiero pushed up from his center back position, found a clearing and slammed a header into the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead.

Shore was the more offensive-minded side in the second half as the Blue Devils pushed for the equalizer, but Toms River North’s defense stood tall and disrupted the Blue Devils attack in the final third of the field.

“At North, defense wins come tournament time,” Mahon said. “We start from the back and we build out. I thought we could have had a couple goals in the first half. But we just grind it out and we get a goal from the center back.”

Both goalkeepers kept their teams in the game, with Toms River North junior goalkeeper Gavin Stryker making two saves to nail down his 10th shutout of the season. Stryker made a point-blank save in the 59th minute on Shore’s best opportunity of the game.

Shore senior Henry Azzolini, meanwhile, saved seven shots, including a breakaway in the 16th minute that momentarily kept the game scoreless.

As encouraging as the recent state-tournament track record of Coaches Cup champions is, Toms River North does not need a confidence boost from other programs in other seasons. Since 2019, the Mariners have reached the sectional final round of the NJSIAA Tournament five times in six years and won three consecutive championships from 2019 to 2021. In that 2019 season that started it all, Toms River North won the South Jersey Group IV championship as a No. 16 seed.

In the one year they failed to make it to the sectional final over the last six years, the Mariners lost in the sectional semifinals.

“I think this tournament helped us a lot,” Ruggiero said. “Instead of being in the Shore Conference (Tournament), we were able to get a couple of wins and get that team morale up. I think that’s what we have been missing – that confidence – so this has really helped us. I’m excited to see where this goes in states.

“I think whatever seed we are, I think we can make some noise. As long as we come to play, I think we can beat and play with anyone.”

 

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