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Five-Minute Flurry: Freehold Twp. Makes Statement vs. Long Branch

Matt Manley|October 1, 2025|Last Updated October 15, 2025

FREEHOLD – Gino Castaneda and his fellow seniors in the Freehold Township boys soccer program spent their freshman seasons on a team that won an NJSIAA sectional championship for a second straight season while under the direction of a first-year head coach.

In other words, they were just getting started as part of a soccer machine. At the time, Freehold Township had an active Shore-Conference record of 20 straight seasons qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament and during that period, the Patriots captured three SCT championships and four NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV titles while being led by three different head coaches.

In the two years since, however, Freehold Township has fallen on the kind of hard times that are commonplace for most programs, but not the Patriots. In both 2023 and 2024, Freehold Township failed to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament, finished with a losing record each year and went a combined 12-24-3.

After two seasons of struggle, Castaneda and his team are learning to win again under first-year coach Mike O’Boyle and on Tuesday, the Patriots earned their biggest win as a program since the 2022 Central Jersey Group IV championship game.

Castaneda provided a spark by bending in a game-tying corner kick midway through the second half, which ignited an explosion of three goals in a five-minute span that powered Freehold Township to a 3-2 win Tuesday over previously-unbeaten Long Branch.

The win keeps Freehold Township in the running for the Shore Conference Class B North division championship while also ending a seven-game winning streak and eight-game unbeaten streak for Long Branch – ranked No. 3 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10.

“We knew coming into this game it was a must-win,” Castaneda said. “We knew they were a tough opponent, undefeated, but we were undefeated at home and we have a great fan base here so we could take care of business and that’s exactly what we did. It’s a very good feeling. We know what we’re capable of and we want to continue to build on it.”

Prior to Tuesday, Freehold Township had two other chances to beat top-three teams in the Shore Conference, according to the SSI rankings, but settled for a 2-2 draw vs. Manalapan (ranked No. 1 to open the season) on opening day and lost a 1-0 lead late in regulation vs. No. 2 Colts Neck before ultimately losing in overtime, 2-1.

“We just keep fighting until the very end,” Castaneda said. “We have a big heart as a team and we just want to keep getting better. Those were tough losses but we learned from them and kept building off of them.”

“I think the attitude with these guys is we know we’re so close,” O’Boyle said. “One of the players even said it: ‘I think we just don’t know how to win in these close situations because of our previous seasons. We haven’t been in these close games and we get overly excited.’ Today was a prime example: we made a mistake down the stretch, but everybody held it together for the final five minutes.”

Trailing Long Branch, 1-0, through 20 minutes of the second half, Freehold Township needed a spark to level the score and give itself a chance to finish off a win against a ranked opponent while remaining in the race for the division title. The Patriots had been the aggressor since conceding a penalty kick in the 14th minute and in the 61st, it finally yielded a result on the scoreboard.

Castaneda lined up a corner kick from the right side and set up an in-swing with his left foot. The senior bent the ball toward the back post and all Long Branch senior goalkeeper Gerardo Rodas could do was make a desperate attempt at a parry as the ball sailed into the back corner of the net for the tying goal.

“My intent wasn’t to whip it in like that,” Castaneda said. “My intent was to whip it (to the) back post but I guess the luck was on our side today.”

The 61st-minute equalizer opened the floodgates for Freehold Township, which scored two more goals within a span of under six minutes. Senior Caine Massey served a free kick into the box and sophomore Chase Melcher ripped in a strike from the middle of the 18-yard area for a 2-1 Patriots lead in the 63rd minute.

“We were on the front foot for most of that game,” O’Boyle said. “I think coming into the game, we had it in the back of our mind that Long Branch is a very good team and we figured we might be on the back foot a bit in this. After Saturday (a 4-1 win over Howell), we made some adjustments with (junior) Caleb (Cone) and Gino out wide and that has helped us out on the outside. That’s provided a big spark for us these last two games.”

Another sophomore got the job done for Freehold Township in the 66th minute, with Jack Manfredonia following up a save by Rodas on his initial breakaway attempt and knocking in the rebound for a 3-1 Freehold Township lead just 5:13 after the Patriots initially tied the game.

“Credit to Jack,” O’Boyle said. “This is his second game up on varsity. We called him up Saturday morning from the jayvee team. He got 20, 30 minutes in Saturday’s game and I don’t think he even got 20 minutes today, but he scored the game-winning goal. He’s just a gnat when he’s out on the field — working hard to get a crappy goal like that. He missed the first one and he didn’t put his head down. He kept fighting and that’s a credit to him.”

Long Branch’s attack came to life in the final 10 minutes and cut its deficit to 3-2 on the second goal of the game by senior Marvin Oyuela, who bounced a 35-yard free kick over the reach of Freehold Township sophomore goalkeeper Giuseppe Romano in the 76th minute to give Long Branch new life. The Green Wave kept the pressure up over the final four minutes, but could not keep its two shots on frame and the Patriots hung on for the victory.

Oyuela also converted Long Branch’s penalty kick in the 14th minute, which resulted from a hand ball inside the box. Rodas was also crucial in keeping Long Branch ahead until the middle of the second half by making two acrobatic first-half saves on well-executed set pieces by Freehold Township.

“Our heads were up coming into the second half,” Castaneda said. “We knew we had a good first half. If we kept it up, we were going to score goals and that’s exactly what we did.”

“Their goalkeeper’s great,” O’Boyle said of Rodas. “He made two huge stops and we went into halftime telling the guys, ‘We don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, we’ve just got to put one in the back of the net and we’ll gain momentum.”

While the returning seniors like Castaneda, Massey, Gino Castaneda, Gabe Bormolini, Sebastian Polo and injured defender Bobby Lockard have come back in 2025 on a mission to restore Freehold Township to its standing as a top Shore Conference public-school program, the Patriots’ sophomore trio made a major impact on Tuesday with goals by Melcher and Manfredonia and a solid effort in goal from Romano.

“We knew back in August we had a lot of young guys in the program and a lot of seniors in this program,” O’Boyle said. “It was so hard making decisions. Our roster has 30 guys on the roster, 15 of which are seniors. We had to send a couple guys down to get playing time and we knew whatever young guys we were keeping had to get time and if they were going to get time, they had to provide us with what we were looking for on the field. Chase Melcher is the prime example: he started out a little slow this year, but these last four or five games, he has been great for us. He makes great runs, he is sneaky getting into the box and it was exactly like that on the tying goal.”

Freehold Township still has work to do in both winning the Class B North title and qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament — in part because of two losses that don’t fit in with results like Tuesday’s win or the narrow misses vs. Manalapan and Colts Neck. Red Bank beat Freehold Township, 3-1, in divisional play and Brick shut out the Patriots, 3-0, in SCT group play on Thursday. Despite those setbacks, Freehold Township can clinch at least a share of the B North title with a win next week vs. Raritan and can qualify for the SCT with a one-sided win over Monmouth Regional on Oct. 6, along with a modest amount of help from the other contenders in the group (Colts Neck, Shore Regional and Brick).

“We have showed up for these big moments, but I also feel like we have taken some days off in a couple of the games we lost,” O’Boyle said. “They always show up for these big moments. They fight their behind off from start to finish in these games and it’s something we stress in practice: you can’t show up in one game and not the other. Whatever it is, they want to shine.”

“We’ve got a whole new coaching, so we’ve got to appreciate them,” Castaneda said. “They’re big on us, they’re confident in our ability and that’s exactly what we have needed for the last three years.”

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