Middletown South Shocks Colts Neck in a Shootout for 1st Shore Conference Title

NEPTUNE — After six rounds of a penalty kick shootout, the Middletown South boys soccer team faced the possibility of celebrating its first ever Shore Conference Tournament championship.

According to the senior preparing to take the clinching kick, there was no other goalkeeper he would rather have on his side than the one he had. By the same token, there was no other shooter Middletown South’s goalkeeper would rather see step to the line than the one that did with the championship on the line.

Senior goalkeeper Carson Perry saved the last shot he faced during the shootout and senior Luke Strada followed by burying the game-winning kick and Middletown South prevailed with a 5-4 victory in penalties over defending champion Colts Neck after playing 100 minutes of scoreless soccer. Strada’s bullet to the lower left of the goal set off a celebration of Middletown South’s first ever Shore Conference Tournament championship in boys soccer.

“We knew we were the best team in this tournament,” Strada said. “We just had to go out and prove it. Games like this, you have to have to be switched-on for 80 minutes and that’s what this team does best.”

“I knew nobody was scoring in overtime,” Perry said. “It was going to come down to penalty kicks and I had a lot of confidence that I could come up with a big save whenever we needed it and I knew our shooters were going to come through.”

Strada and junior teammate Connor Saul were the only two Middletown South players to make two kicks during the shootout, with senior Mason Petke also hitting his attempt to force a sixth round of kicks.

Luke Strada buries the winner and Midd South Nation goes wild after winning three SCT. Hat tip to @Bob_Badders for the video after my phone ran out of juice after the Perry save just seconds prior. pic.twitter.com/Fy3WpP26hk

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 25, 2025

Colts Neck senior Ben Kazani also made two attempts and started off the shootout by burying his kick to the left side. Middletown South missed its first two kicks, while Colts Neck missed its second.

Perry saved the third Colts Neck attempt, which came against Cougars leading scorer Sean Moore on a shot to the lower right of the goal. Strada then tied the shootout with his first make, followed by a make by Colts Neck senior Dillon Younger, then another conversion by Saul to make it 2-2 through four rounds.

“I was going over shooters with our other goalie, Liam McGrath,” Perry said. “He faced Sean Moore in club and he said he remembered him going to his right, my left, so that’s what I was looking for. As I saw him approach, I could tell that’s the way he wanted to go, so once he got to the ball, I just dove.”

“He’s the best goalie on penalty kicks I have ever seen,” Strada said of Perry. “If we got to penalty kicks, I knew we were going to win because even if we missed one or two, Carson was going to save more than we missed.”

In the fifth round, senior Ryan Spencer gave Colts Neck the advantage with a made kick, but Petke answered with a Panenka-style chip to the right corner of the goal with Colts Neck goalkeeper Liam Collura leaning to the opposite side of the goal.

Both Kazani and Saul connected in the sixth round of kicks, which set the stage for Perry and Strada to finish the job. Perry made a diving save to his right on a strike by Jonah Chiang to leave the championship at the foot of Strada, who won it with a blast to the lower left.

Here is Carson Perry’s clutch save to set up the game-winning finish by Luke Strada. pic.twitter.com/IJUGfqjI6I

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 25, 2025

“I have never seen a goalie who is as good at reading the shooter as he is,” Middletown South coach Dan Riverso said of Perry. “He just knows how to read cues and then react.”

“I saw (Chiang) look over to that side of the goal a little longer than he should have, so I had a pretty good idea which way he was going,” Perry said of his final save. “Once I saw his plant foot hit and he opened up his hips, I knew I was right so I was diving to my right all the way and he hit it right to me.”

After conceding an 8-2 advantage in shots during the first half, Middletown South held Colts Neck to two shots over the final 60 minutes. Colts Neck’s two best opportunities came within three minutes of one another in the 30th and 33rd minutes, first on a goal disallowed for contact with Perry after the Middletown South goalkeeper briefly held the ball in his clutch.

Big moment in the 30th. Colts Neck nearly gets on the board but is called for a foul on the keeper. pic.twitter.com/fZA42fCAC5

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 25, 2025

In the 33rd, junior Charlie Welsh saved a chip by Moore off the end-line and a follow-up shot by senior Gabe Kruglyansky rammed the left post.

Middletown South’s closest call came in the 47th, when senior Jack Cohen ripped a 25-yard strike that Collura saved with a diving stop to the upper 90.

Big save by Liam Collura to deny Jack Cohen and Midd South in the 47th. pic.twitter.com/GKlVpq96aT

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) October 25, 2025

The two SCT finalists played 180 minutes against one another this season and in those two matches, there was one goal scored in the run of play. Moore scored the game-winner in the 17th minute at Middletown South on Sept. 20 and the Colts Neck defense held on for a 1-0 win.

On Saturday, Middletown South became just the third team to keep Moore off the board in 16 games this season, joining Christian Brothers Academy in its 3-2, regular-season win over Colts Neck and Brick in a 4-0 loss to the Cougars in the Shore Conference Tournament.

Junior Brody Illingworth led the effort in shadowing Moore, with center backs Ryan Kapler and Welsh chipping in on the assignment. Senior Brett Denery manned the other side of the defense as its attack-minded outside back while the Illingworth-Kapler-Welsh trio focused on Moore.

“Brody Illingworth did a fantastic job on Sean Moore,” Riverso said. “His physicalness, his speed, his tenacity were outstanding. Other than Carson, he was our man of the match for the job he did.”

The focus on Moore became more intense due to injuries to Colts Neck seniors C.J. Collins and Gabe Kruglyansky — the two leading scorers on the Cougars after Moore. Collins left the game in the first 20 minutes of the match and returned in the 75th before asking off the field again while in visible discomfort. Kruglyansky injured his foot early in the second half and his initial attempt to return to the field lasted only a minute before he limped off again.

Fortunately for Colts Neck, Kruglyansky returned again in the 68th minute and remained on the field through the end of overtime.

Prior to Saturday, Middletown South had not played in the SCT championship game since 2003 and made it back to the final with a championship starting XI that consists of seven seniors, including one who was not on last year’s team. Strada passed on playing high school soccer in 2024 to play in Major League Soccer’s MLS Next program.

“This is why I came back,” Strada said. “I knew this was a team capable of winning a championship and I thought I could help them. We have all been playing together since middle school and even before for some of us, so this is something we have been thinking about for a long time.”

Strada turned out to be the finishing piece to a championship roster for Middletown South — a team of seniors and juniors that have been playing together since middle school and have been dreaming of a championship moment since they arrived at the school along with their current head coach.

“This is the first group of seniors that we have had all the way through from freshman year until graduation,” Riverso said. “When (assistant coach) Jon (Santos) and I took over the program, we saw this group in eighth grade and we knew they had a chance to bring this program back.”

It is an especially-sweet win for Perry, whose older brother, Brayden, won a Shore Conference Tournament championship with Christian Brothers Academy as a junior starter in 2023 and Carson added to the family’s SCT championship collection while staying at his hometown school and playing with his longtime friends.

“It’s a senior-led team, which is what makes this so special,” Perry said. “We had seven out of 11 starters who are seniors on the field tonight and even more on the bench and we have been working towards this moment for four years, so to have it go the way it did is an incredible feeling.”