Imperfect 10: Long Branch Finishes Improbable Sectional-Title Run
WATCH: Long Branch at Steinert Replay, WBCB Sports Network
Few players are disproportionately saddled with a team’s struggles more than a goalkeeper in soccer, and through the first 12 games of his junior season, Carlos Gerardo Rodas was the starting goalkeeper for a 2-10 Long Branch team that had allowed 25 goals with no shutouts.
An all-division selection in Class B North as a sophomore, Rodas protected the net against one of the Shore Conference’s toughest schedules through 12 games and came out on the losing end 10 times. So, when Long Branch took the field at Steinert High School Friday for its biggest match of the season, Rodas wanted to leave his mark on his team’s biggest win in nearly three decades.
Rodas made two huge second-half saves — including a penalty kick — and fellow junior Thomas Silva provided the game’s lone goal to spark the Green Wave to a 1-0 win that delivered the program its first NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship since 1997.
Friday’s triumph completed Long Branch’s climb from 2-10 afterthought to sectional champion as a No. 9 seed — a journey that included the last four wins of a 10-game winning streak by the Green Wave that has spanned more than a calendar month.
“We have been on the road for this entire tournament and we have been in big games all year, so these guys were ready for the moment,” first-year Long Branch head coach Bill Rohr said. “They understood what today meant and what was on the line. They have stepped up time and time again over the last month or so, and when you’re coming from where we were at 2-10, it takes a lot of belief and a lot of character to get to where we are. So, I knew they were going to show up for this game, and they did.”
During Long Branch’s 10-game winning streak, Rodas has racked up seven shutouts, including clean sheets in six of the last seven games. The only team to break up that otherwise pristine run in goal for Rodas was Colts Neck in a 3-2 loss to Long Branch in the sectional quarterfinals. That marked the only loss of the season for Colts Neck — the Shore Conference Tournament champion.
There was one aspect of Friday’s shutout that made it different than the other seven during Long Branch’s win streak: the Green Wave needed it. Long Branch has one other 1-0 win during its 10-game winning streak and it was over Bayonne, which was not a tournament game and didn’t count toward NJSIAA Tournament power points. When Rodas had to protect the 0-0 draw or the 1-0 lead on Friday, it was with a championship on the line.
Two huge moments for @LbBoysSoccer goalkeeper Carlos Gerardo Rodas; a PK save with 36:54 left and his off-balance volleyball spike on a cross with 19:07 left. pic.twitter.com/KVLt71OOXF
— John Lewis (@JohnLewis19) November 15, 2024
“He’s the man,” Rohr said of his goalkeeper. “He is smart, he has great instincts, he’s got a great IQ for the game. With the way the year has gone, he hasn’t really been able to get the recognition he deserves. This is a guy who was all-division as a sophomore, and he got passed over this year because the team wasn’t winning. That wasn’t his fault, but sometimes as the goalie, that falls on you even when you’re doing everything you can to help your team. So, I’m really happy for him that he got to have his moment today.”
Early in the second half, Steinert earned a takedown inside the penalty box that gave junior Tyler Tafrow a chance to give the Spartans the lead in the 44th minute. Rodas, however, anticipated the shot to his right and punched it away with a diving attempt to keep the home team off the board.
In the 53rd, senior Alejandro Lopez-Flores served a corner kick into the box, where senior back Tristan Pierre-Louis got the first head on the ball. Junior Brendan Mendoza then flicked a header across the goal, and with Steinert goalkeeper Dennis Chaykovskyy tied up in traffic on the near post, Silva slammed in a volley to the far left corner for the only goal of the match.
“We have scored with set pieces and without set pieces this tournament, but our effectiveness on those set pieces has been a huge part of this run, no doubt,” Rohr said. “We’re not a big team, and Steinert had some big, physical kids, so one of the messages for our guys today was not to back down and challenge everything. Those 50-50 balls and set pieces were going to be huge again today, and we pride ourselves on our corners and set pieces, because those are the plays that usually decide games, especially in the state tournament.”
Thomas Silva scored the lone goal for @LbBoysSoccer. Thanks to Pedro Gomez, his interpreter. pic.twitter.com/ZckODUGTur
— John Lewis (@JohnLewis19) November 15, 2024
Rodas made one more acrobatic save to preserve the lead, which came in the 60th minute. The junior goalkeeper one-hand swatted a curling shot by Matt Tafrow away from both the goal and the awaiting head of Tyler Tafrow on the far post.
The long championships droughts and excruciatingly close losses in past championship games for both teams added to the tension of Friday’s showdown in Hamilton. Long Branch has lost four sectional championship games between its 1997 title and Friday’s win, including a loss to Hopewell Valley in the 2021 Central Group III final. Three seniors on this year’s squad — center back Evan Santiago, forward Johan Gomez and Lopez-Flores — were starters as freshmen in the 2021 championship game.
Steinert, meanwhile, has not won a sectional title since 1988 and lost last year’s Central Group III final at Robbinsville on penalty kicks.
“Our three captains — Alejandro, Evan and Johan — they remember what it was like to get there and come up short,” Rohr said. “They got a taste of it as freshmen and now they are seniors, so they have put the work in, and they knew this was their last chance at this. Those three and Tristan Pierre-Louis and (Everardo Ortiz), they have been kind of that senior group of leaders who have kept us loose and kept the vibes high this season, even when things weren’t really going our way. They continuously showed up, worked hard and set the tone every day.”
Long Branch now has two championships to show for its midseason turnaround, with the Green Wave adding the sectional championship trophy to its banner commemorating their Shore Conference Coaches Cup championship. The four Coaches Cup wins were the first four wins in the current 10-game winning streak.
During the current 10-game winning streak, eight of the wins have come away from Long Branch’s home field, including the entirety of the NJSIAA Tournament.
Long Branch celebrates its Central Jersey Group III title. (Photo courtesy of Long Branch Boys Soccer)
As spectacular as Long Branch’s in-season renaissance has been, it may not yet have reached its peak. The Green Wave’s season continues into next week, when it will travel to play South Jersey Group III champion Shawnee on Tuesday for the right to play in next weekend’s Group III championship game. Shawnee is ranked No. 10 in the state in the most recent NJ.com Top 20 and its only two losses this season are to perennial South Jersey non-public power St. Augustine and South Jersey Group IV champion Southern.
Long Branch, however, is the only team to beat Colts Neck, and it has also lost its share of competitive games. In addition to six losses in the grueling Class A North division, Long Branch’s other losses are to two Shore Conference division champions (Manalapan and Brick Memorial), a Shore Conference Tournament semifinalist (Ocean) and the South Jersey Group IV champion (Southern).
“This team is ready for the moment and ready for the occasion,” Rohr said. “They have been showing the entire state that they are up to the task, so I expect us to be ready for whatever is in front of us.”
