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Easy as ABC: Boscolo-Cegion Stars, Point Boro Runs Streak to Eight

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

BAYVILLE — Stylistically speaking, senior Alberto Boscolo-Cegion and the Point Pleasant Boro boys soccer team are not a perfect fit, according to Panthers head coach Pete Casalino.

Boscolo-Cegion is a player with tools that stand out, but for most of the game, he is asked to fit in. Still, there are moments in a game in which every team needs an individual to shine and Boscolo-Cegion has learned how to do that within Point Boro’s concepts while the team has also learned how to turn him loose.

On Tuesday night, the Panthers’ Italian-born, Brazilian-trained, left-footed forward made his most pronounced impact yet, scoring a go-ahead goal during regulation and a golden goal in the second minute of overtime to lead Point Boro to a 3-2, overtime win over host Central Regional in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament.

The victory continues a torrid stretch for Point Boro, which has won eight straight games after starting the season 1-6-1. The eight-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the Shore Conference and is one away from tying Toms River East, Christian Brothers Academy and Toms River South for the longest of the season.

“I really don’t think we’re playing that differently than we were when we were 1-6-1,” said Casalino, whose team lost by a single goal in five of those six losses — including three to teams seeded in the top 11 of the SCT. “We’ve just found a way to win. It’s a testament to these guys that they never gave up. At 1-6-1, it’s easy to pack it in, but they never did. They bought in, they trusted the process — I’m not even from Philly — but they worked hard every day and eventually, that’s going to show itself.”

“The chemistry is getting better and better,” said senior midfielder Joe Doles, who assisted each of the two goals by Boscolo-Cegion on Tuesday. “We’re best friends and we’re working really well right now.”

Boscolo-Cegion entered Tuesday with two goals on the season — the first of his varsity career after dealing with an injury in 2024 — but his last goal prior to Tuesday was also a meaningful one. He scored the lone goal of a 1-0 win over a Rumson-Fair Haven side that was ranked in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 on Sept. 30, giving the Panthers their second win in a row on the way to eight straight.

On Tuesday, he recorded his first career brace at the varsity level and both goals catapulted Point Boro into the lead. The second of the two was the one Boscolo-Cegion and his teammates will not soon forget and it started with a free kick by Central 40 yards from the Point Boro goal.

After Point Boro cleared out a Central free kick into the box, Doles won the ball near the center of the field, carried it through the middle and delivered a pass between two defenders that hit Boscolo-Cegion in stride as he made his run up the right side of the field. The senior lined up the ball from Doles and one-timed a left-footed strike just under the bar for the game-winner.

“I was dribbling up and I heard my coach (Casalino) screaming, ‘Three-on-two,'” Doles said. “I saw Berto to my right, I laid it off to him and that was it. He is the best finisher on the team.”

Boscolo-Cegion led a stampede to the Point Boro cheering section in the visitors bleachers and climbed to the top of the fence to acknowledge the crowd and celebrate Point Boro’s first SCT victory since 2022.

Doles and Boscolo-Cegion linked up for a go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute as well. A hand ball on Central just outside the edge of the 18-yard box set Point Boro up with a free kick and Doles initiated the play with an on-ball touch that Boscolo-Cegion ripped to the lower right of the goal for a 2-1 Panthers lead.

“I saw the bottom right corner open, (Kaden Stout) is a tall goalie, so I just told Berto to tuck it bottom right,” Doles said. “That’s exactly what he did.”

“I was waiting for the Wall the break just a little so I had the right angle, so I paused for a second,” Boscolo-Cegion said. “Once I saw that, I went.”

During Point Boro’s 1-6-1 start to the season, Boscolo-Cegion did not score or assist a goal for Point Boro. He was still feeling out his role as a relatively inexperienced varsity player, but he showed his potential to the team and Casalino from the moment he arrived in Point Pleasant in the fall of 2022 as a freshman. Boscolo-Cegion was born in Italy and at age 10, he moved with his family to Brazil, where he lived for nearly five years. His father’s job then brought his family to the Jersey Shore and after a year to acclimate himself to the school and the program, followed by another year lost to injury, he is finally making an impact as a dynamic, emerging weapon on a blue-collar Panthers squad.

“He has a ton of speed, he’s got the left foot, but it’s hard to fit him into our style,” Casalino said. “That’s not his style. He is going to play the South American style — lots of touches — and that’s not what we do. It’s been a transition for him, but he has really done a good job of modifying his game without changing it, because we need moments like that, we need moments like the restart and the fact that he has been able to make that adjustment is a testament to him.”

Point Boro senior Albarto Boscolo-Cegion fires up the fans after scoring the winning goal in overtime at Central Regional. (Image: Matt Manley) - Pt Boro at Central

Point Boro senior Albarto Boscolo-Cegion fires up the fans after scoring the winning goal in overtime at Central Regional. (Image: Matt Manley)

Starting with a goal in Point Boro’s second win of the season — a 5-2 victory over Lakewood — Boscolo-Cegion leads the team with four goals during the eight-game winning streak and is third on the team for the entire season. Only seniors Jake Greene (seven) and Dean Cardia (five) have more.

Central — the No. 16 seed in the SCT — was the last team to beat 17th-seeded Point Boro, which came in a Shore Conference Class A South divisional game on Sept. 22. Point Boro scored first in the game, surrendered a game-tying penalty kick and ultimately fell, 2-1.

“Coming back here, we wanted the revenge,” Boscolo-Cegion said.

That penalty kick on Sept. 22 was the only one allowed to pass by senior goalkeeper Logan Forte in four attempts prior to Tuesday and in the first 10 minutes of the SCT rematch vs. Central, Forte was forced to stare down another penalty — this time in a win-or-go-home setting that added to the weight of the kick.

As Casalino yelled from the sideline for his players to prepare for the rebound, Forte made a diving stop to his right on a low rip by Central senior Landon Kavanagh, which denied Central the opening goal of the game. It might have seemed like Casalino had a premonition but in reality, he has just become accustomed to watching his goalkeeper stymie penalty shooters.

“I’d bet my mortgage that Logan Forte is the best goalie on PK’s in the Shore,” Casalino said. “He has saved four out of five this year. He reads shooters extremely well, his reaction time is unbelievable and he’s got that reach.”

Riding the momentum of a penalty save by its senior keeper, Point Boro went to work finding a soft spot in the Central defense and found it in the 23rd minute. Senior Dean Cardia fought through a defender while making a run through the middle and forced the ball to junior Cole Danko, who emerged from a group of defenders with a clean shot that he buried inside the right post for a 1-0 Panthers lead.

“This game could have gone sideways,” Casalino said. “The first time we played (Central), the same thing happened — we gave up a PK early, but that one went in, so if we give up another one today, that maybe gets in everybody’s head. I think watching that save gave us a boost. Nobody wants to give up PK’s, but I never assume the other team is going to score on them. I always feel like if we get a PK, we’re going to score. If we give up a PK, it’s fifty-fifty at best. He makes saves like that all the time, where you think you’re beat and he makes the save and it just buoys everybody’s spirits.”

Central senior Ilyas Ciltepe scored both Central equalizers, the first of which he chipped over Forte after running down the long pass from classmate Michael Boyer in the 54th minute. After Point Boro regained the lead in the 63rd, Ciltepe struck again with 5:59 showing on the regulation clock. He controlled a flick from freshman Justin DellaPietro with his chest and one-timed a left-footed strike into the right corner of the goal, tying the game at 2-2.

The Golden Eagles have been compromised by injuries throughout the 2025 season after entering the campaign with high expectations, but Point Boro faced its share of absences on Tuesday as well. Senior midfielder Braeden Moramarco and senior Luca Grammatico were out Tuesday due to injury, leaving Point Boro with just two of the three center midfielders that helped change their fortunes.

“That game was the first time we went with our big three in the middle: Jake (Greene), Braeden and Joey (Doles),” Casalino said. “We had been experimenting with Joey at center back and Jake at the target forward and Jake at outside back and after looking at Central on tape the first time, their three best kids are their central midfielders and we’re going to go best-vs.-best and see what happens. We knocked it really nice that night and we decided to stick with it and really took off from there.”

That Central game was also around the time senior Sean Hankins decided to leave the team to pursue other endeavors, according to Casalino. Hankins was an all-division selection as a sophomore in 2024 and is on track to graduate early from high school.

“If you were to tell me we would lose a player of his caliber and then go on this kind of winning streak, I would have said, ‘No way, that doesn’t make any sense,'” Casalino said. “It’s a testament to the character of the guys on our team and their willingness to step up and answer the call when the team needed guys to step up.”

For Point Boro to match Toms River South, CBA and Toms River East with a ninth straight win, the Panthers will have to beat one of those teams on Thursday. No. 1 CBA hosts Point Boro at Dan Keane Field while looking to extend its own unbeaten streak of 12 games since opening the season 0-1-2. Point Boro is searching for its first trip to the SCT quarterfinals since 2011, when the Panthers ran into a 21-0 CBA team to end their run to the Shore’s final eight.

“In their minds, CBA is the pinnacle of Shore soccer,” Casalino said of his players. “We haven’t gotten blown out in any of these games. Even in games that seemed like they were headed that way, we came back and made it close at the end. CBA could score two in the first 10 on Thursday, but these guys are not going to quit. They have seen teams better than us, I doubt CBA has seen a team that plays the way we play. We’re not going to be scared.”

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