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Comeback Cougars: Resilient Colts Neck Reaches First SCT Final Since 2001

Matt Manley|October 25, 2024|Last Updated October 26, 2024

NEPTUNE — Prior to Thursday, the undefeated Colts Neck boys soccer team had trailed on four occasions this season, but never for more than 12 minutes and never at halftime.

Facing Ocean Township Thursday in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals at Memorial Stadium on the campus of Summerfield Elementary School, the Cougars — ranked No. 1 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 — had to face one another at halftime after being outscored in the first half for the first time all season.

During the second half, Colts Neck served up a reminder that it can score early, often and when it matters most.

Sophomore Sean Moore scored the equalizer within the first two minutes of the second half and senior Kyle Moore finished off the game-winner in the 75th to complete a come-from-behind, 2-1 Cougars win over No. 7 Ocean and send Colts Neck to the Shore Conference Tournament championship game for the first time since 2001.

“We all stuck together,” Kyle Moore said. “We went down 1-0 at halftime and we knew the game was never over. It’s always an 80-minute game. We played through it, we played hard and the adrenaline is pumping right now.”

Before the completion of the 15th minute Thursday, Colts Neck found itself facing its fifth deficit of the season and by the end of the half, the Cougars not only still trailed Ocean, but they had been largely outplayed. The Spartans did not allow anything dangerous near the goal outside of a header over the crossbar by Gabe Kruglyansky in the second minute and generated five corner kicks on the other end of the field.

Ocean grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute thanks to the third of those five corner kicks. Senior Jacob Gomez served the kick into the box from the right corner and classmate Ryan Fernandez — who scored the lone goal Tuesday in Ocean’s 1-0 quarterfinal win over Rumson-Fair Haven — was the last Ocean player to get a touch on the ball. A Colts Neck defender then knocked it into the net for an own goal.

The Spartans controlled the remainder of the first half by crowding the Moore brothers, pressuring the backs and working to earn their corner kicks.

“We’re an 80-minute team,” Gershon said. “Down 1-0 with 40 minutes left doesn’t mean anything with us. Teams are going to learn that.”

Trailing 1-0 early in the second half, Colts Neck took fewer than two minutes to score the equalizer. Senior center back Ryan Spencer blasted a pass from midfield into the box and it hopped over a defender and to the left corner of the six-yard box. Sophomore Sean Moore headed it high into the net for his 25th goal of the season and a 1-1 tie on the scoreboard.

The 26:57 of game time was the longest stretch in which Colts Neck has trailed this season.

“It sucks having our heads down going into halftime, especially not getting a goal before halftime,” Gershon said. “But you still have to grind it out. We worked hard and we got the result.”

Colts Neck made a concerted effort to create space for Spencer to launch deep passes toward the box to loosen up the Ocean formation and create some early chances in the second half. Eventually, the Cougars put together a sequence that looked more like the aesthetically-pleasing attack that has created a Shore-leading 64 goals in 17 games this season.

In the 75th minute, senior Sam Gershon took a pass from junior C.J. Collins and turned toward the near post. Gershon then slipped a pass to Kyle Moore on a diagonal run to the right post and hit him in stride. Kyle Moore took a touch and blasted a finish inside the near post for the go-ahead score.

“I checked in for C.J. and I felt a guy on my left side, so I turned right,” Gershon said. “Kyle made a perfect run and I just slipped him in and the rest is history.”

“I don’t think I took a shot all game,” Kyle Moore said. “I took one shot all game and I knew I had to make it. C.J. and Sam had a great play and Sam just sent me. One touch and I shot it as hard as I could, as low as I could.”

Sean and Kyle Moore have now combined for 46 goals on the season, with both eclipsing the 20-goal mark during the course of this tournament.

“There’s no doubt they are the best duo in the Shore,” Gershon said. “It’s not even close. They have both put up high-forties goals over the last few years and are just insane at finishing. Having two of them makes is so hard to defend us, especially with how hard both of them work.”

Colts Neck’s defense held Ocean to two shots in the second half, backed up by senior goalkeeper Justin Appel. The senior keeper made two saves in the game and was quick to pounce on loose balls in the box, including in the final seconds to disrupt Ocean’s last-ditch effort to equalize.

“The mindset of the defense was to keep Noor (Eraky) contained, keep Connor (Shaw) contained and just play the ball out of the back,” Kyle Moore said. “Stay patient and just find our guys in the middle.”

Four wins into their SCT run, the Cougars have trailed in two of their four games. The other SCT deficit Colts Neck faced was early in the second half of its quarterfinal win over Manasquan and that was the shortest-lived deficit the Cougars faced this season. Twenty-two seconds after conceding the lead, Sean Moore scored an equalizer before Kyle Moore scored the game-winner in the 3-2 Colts Neck win.

“This one was tougher,” Kyle Moore said of overcoming the deficit. “This was a bigger stage, more people surrounding you, more pressure. I think we all just felt more pressure to get it back, but Sean had a huge goal to get us going again and from there, we just went off.”

Colts Neck will be the first team to take an undefeated record into the Shore Conference Tournament final since the 2011 Christian Brothers Academy team, which finished that season 21-0 and is very likely the greatest team in the history of the Shore Conference.

“We don’t mind the pressure (of being undefeated),” Gershon said. “We were saying earlier this year, we love being number one. We want to be looked at as the bad guys that everybody wants to beat.”

Fittingly enough, CBA will be Colts Neck’s opponent Saturday, when the Cougars will look to capture their first SCT championship while facing a program seeking its 14th overall and fourth in a row. Colts Neck has lost its last seven matches vs. CBA dating back to 2016, including SCT losses in both 2021 and 2022 on CBA’s road to a championship in each season. The last time Colts Neck defeated CBA was 2012, which was the only losing season in the history of CBA’s soccer program.

Colts Neck’s only trip to the SCT final ended with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Ocean in 2001. One year prior, Colts Neck won the overall Group I championship in only its second year of existence. Art Collier has been the head coach from the inception of the program and will be looking the first SCT championship of his head coaching career, as well as the program’s first tournament championship of any kind since the 2000 state championship.

“We’re pumped, we’re hyped and we want to make history,” Gershon said. “We don’t want it to stop there. We won our division, we’re playing for the Shore on Saturday and then we’re going for states. We have a complete team this year, we said we wanted to do it, so we’re going to give it a run.”

“It’s exciting,” Kyle Moore said. “I’m going to be a nervous wreck leading up to that game, but I’ll keep myself composed on Saturday.”

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