NJSIAA Preview: Colts Neck, Middletown South Play Rubber Match for CJ3 Title

NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III Championship

Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

At Five Points Park, Colts Neck

No. 2 Middletown South at No. 1 Colts Neck, 2 p.m.

 

Middletown South at a Glance

Head Coach: Dan Riverso
Record: 15-3-1
Last Sectional Championship: None
Last Sectional Final Appearance: 2003

Road to the Final

First Round: Senior Luke Strada posted his second hat trick of the season and also added an assist to chart the course for a 7-1 win for the Eagles over No. 15 Pemberton. Mason Petke, Jack Cohen, Gian Luca Zito and Joey Fielding each added a goal in the rout.

Quarterfinals: Strada again led the offense by scoring the lone goal of the game in the 18^th minute and Middletown South earned a 1-0, revenge win over No. 7 Long Branch – the team that eliminated Middletown South in last year’s Central Group III semifinals on the way to winning the 2024 sectional title.

Semifinals: Strada did not score the winning goal this time around, but did set up the game-winner by junior Connor Saul in the first half that powered the Eagles to another 1-0 win – this time over No. 3 Northern Burlington.

Players to Watch

Luke Strada, Sr., Midfield/Forward (11 goals, 10 assists)

Connor Saul, Jr., Forward (12 goals, 1 assist)

Brett Denery, Sr., Defense (2 goals)

Jack Cohen, Sr., Midfield (2 goals, 1 assist)

Ryan Kapler, Sr., Defense (1 goal, 1 assist)

Mason Petke, Sr., Forward (3 goals, 2 assists)

Matteo Gallina, Sr., Midfield (2 goals, 1 assist)

Brody Illingworth, Jr., Defense (1 goal)

Charlie Welsh, Jr., Defense

Luke Strukiewicz, So., Midfield

Carson Perry, Sr., Goalkeeper

 

Colts Neck at a Glance

Head Coach: Art Collier
Record: 19-2
Last Sectional Championship: 2000 (Central Group I)
Last Sectional Final Appearance: 2018

Road to the Final

First Round: Junior Sean Moore netted a hat trick with one assist, senior Ben Kazani put up a goal and three assists and senior Gabe Kruglyansky added a goal and an assist to pace the Cougars to a 5-0 win over No. 16 Nottingham.

Quarterfinals: Playing for the first time since sustaining an injury that forced him out of the Shore Conference Tournament championship game on Oct. 25, C.J. Collins drew a penalty kick with one second left on the clock and Kazani buried it to give Colts Neck a dramatic, 2-1 win over No. 8 Lawrence. Colts Neck trailed, 1-0, at halftime and tied the game on a header by Kruglyansky off a corner kick from Kazani in the 50th minute. The Cougars finally scored the equalizer after Collins broke loose on a breakaway and was taken down before he could get off the potential game-winning shot, which Kazani took care of with his penalty kick.

Semifinals: The Cougars again fell behind in the early minutes, this time on a header by sophomore James Heptig, but recovered to score three first-half goals on the way to a 4-1 win over No. 5 Brick Memorial. Moore recorded his second hat trick of the tournament, including two on a pair of assists from Collins, who scored the second Colts Neck goal as well.

 

Players to Watch

Sean Moore, Jr., Forward (30 goals, 8 assists)

Ben Kazani, Sr., Midfield (7 goals, 21 assists)

C.J. Collins, Sr., Forward (10 goals, 5 assists)

Gabe Kruglyansky, Sr., Midfield (8 goals, 9 assists)

Ryan Spencer, Sr., Defense (3 assists)

Dillon Younger, Sr., Defense (3 goals, 2 assists)

Jonah Chiang, Sr., Midfield (1 goal, 1 assist)

Nate Calhoun, Sr., Defense (2 assists)

Daniel Macedo, Jr., Midfield

Leo Shatku, Fr., Defense (2 goals, 1 assist)

Liam Collura, Sr., Goalkeeper

The modern Shore Conference schedule makes three meetings between the same two teams a rarity in 2025, so Friday’s game between Colts Neck and Middletown South is already an improbable occurrence. Then, consider that two of the three showdowns between the two Shore Conference public powers will have been championship games and the 2025 rivalry becomes even more unique.

Not since Manalapan and Howell met in both the Shore Conference Tournament final and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV final in 2007 have two Shore Conference teams played one another in both the SCT championship game and a sectional final in the same year. That year, the Braves and Rebels played four times, with Howell winning the Class A North division and the SCT and Manalapan getting the last laugh in the Central Group IV final.

Both Colts Neck and Middletown South are hoping a long laugh at the end of Friday afternoon’s clash and while each team picked up a win over the other during the season, it is Middletown South that won the biggest game between the teams so far. The Eagles pushed Colts Neck to penalty kicks in the Shore Conference final and prevailed, 5-4, in the shootout after playing the Cougars to a scoreless draw during the 100 minutes of play.

On Sept. 20, it was Colts Neck that got the better of Middletown South in the form of a 1-0 win in Middletown, where junior Sean Moore scored just before the midway point of the first half and senior goalkeeper Liam Collura turned in what might have been his best game of the year in securing the 1-0 shutout win.

In the SCT championship game, Middletown South kept Moore off the score sheet – one of only four teams to do so this season. Colts Neck is 2-2 when Moore does not score and one of those wins was the last-second, 2-1 win over Lawrence in the Central Group III quarterfinals. For a team hoping to beat Colts Neck, keeping Moore in check is best way to do it, and while that is just not possible for most teams, Middletown South has been able to limit Colts Neck’s 30-goal scorer to one goal in 180 minutes of play between the two teams.

Moore found it harder to shake free of junior marking back Brody Illingworth and Middletown South’s cohesive back line in the SCT final because two of Colts Neck’s best players left the game with injuries. C.J. Collins left in the first half and attempted to come back late in the second before leaving again with a lower-body injury. Gabe Kruglyansky, meanwhile, injured his foot early in the second half and eventually made it back to the field during overtime, but was limited and did not participate in the shootout.

Both Collins and Kruglyansky have been impact players for Colts Neck, with Kruglyansky scoring the first goal in the 2-1 win over Lawrence and Collins drawing the foul that set up Ben Kazani’s winning penalty kick with one second left in the same game. Collins also posted a goal and two assists in Tuesday’s win over Brick Memorial in the sectional semifinals.

In both head-to-head meetings between Colts Neck and Middletown South, the Eagles were the team that grew stronger as the game progressed. Middletown South wound up outshooting Colts Neck, 12-8, in the first meeting while chasing the goal and in the second game, the Eagles turned an 8-2 deficit in shots to 10-7 by the end of the game, holding Colts Neck to two shots in the final 60 minutes of the SCT championship game.

For Middletown South to knock off Colts Neck again, however, the Eagles will likely have to score this time. Junior Connor Saul is the team’s top scorer with 12 goals and scored the game-winner in Tuesday’s 1-0, semifinal win over Northern Burlington. Senior Luke Strada, meanwhile, has been the engine of the attack throughout the year and during the state tournament, Strada has been dominant. Through three rounds, the senior has posted four goals and two assists: a hat trick in round one vs. Pemberton, the lone goal in a 1-0 quarterfinal win over Long Branch, and the assist on Saul’s goal vs. Northern Burlington.

Through its first eight games this season, Middletown South was 5-3 with just one shutout by the defense and senior goalkeeper Carson Perry. Over the last 11 games, the Eagles are 10-0-1 with nine shutouts and two goals allowed with a 10-game winning streak entering Friday’s game.

Over the full season, Colts Neck has been even better than Middletown South has been at keeping the ball out of the net, with 10 goals allowed in 21 games. Since the Shore Conference Tournament semifinal round, however, Colts Neck has recorded one official clean sheet in five straight matches.

For the Cougars to earn their payback over Middletown South, scoring early may be an imperative given Middletown South’s demonstrated ability to close out the last 20-to-30 minutes of a match. With a healthy group of players on the attack, Colts Neck is better suited to do that and an emphasis on starting strong may also help the Cougars avoid an early concession, which they have been an issue in each of the last two games.

Will the SCT championship loss and the early deficits be a wake-up call or continue to be a trend for Colts Neck? Can Middletown South find a way to score if Colts Neck stays organized early? Can the Eagles play from behind if forced to? Can Colts Neck find offense late in the game if it is tied vs. an exceedingly fit Middletown South side? Those are the questions that hold the Central Jersey Group III champion within their answers.

Those questions will be answered Friday, so anything before that is just a guess.

The Pick: Middletown South, 2-1, in overtime