No. 1 Toms River South Makes Opening Statement in Shutout of No. 6 Freehold Township

TOMS RIVER — Toms River South (1-0) wasted no time as the Shore Conference’s top-ranked team. The Indians opened the 2026 season with a dominant 3-0 victory over No. 6 Freehold Township (0-1) in their home opener.

Unlike last season when these two teams battled to a 1-1 draw in their opening game, the Indians struck early to give themselves a 1-0 lead. Senior Jaelyn Mayne, who finished with five goals last season, headed the ball off junior Ava Barbalinardo’s corner towards the back post in the fifth minute of the game.

Toms River South continued to apply pressure throughout the half, but the Patriots’ defense and senior goalkeeper Violet Matthews held the Indians to one goal. Junior Daniella Gordon, who led the team with 15 goals last season, had two good chances to score in the first half but was shut out. Gordon hit the crossbar in the 22nd minute. Later, with under three minutes left in the half, Matthews came out to stop Gordon’s breakaway.

“I think they just took a deep breath with it being the first game of the season; I think there was a little bit of nerves,” Toms River South head coach Kacey Woram said. “We have a lot of experience coming back, and we have to come out and play and show who we are. I think after the first 40 minutes they settled in and communicated a little bit more at halftime, and they were ready to go.”

TRS came out of halftime with a lot of energy and pinned the Patriot defense back for the first ten minutes of the half. Gordon hit her second crossbar four minutes into the half; junior Kaylee Boemio had her shot go just wide of the goal.

Gordon finally gave the Indians a cushion when she blasted a shot under the crossbar from 20 yards away in the 49th minute off a pass from Boemio.

“Our coaches made a good speech at halftime,” Gordon said. “We needed to talk more, and the more we talk, the better we play and pick our passes to get easier opportunities to score. We came out strong and ready to go in the second half.”

Freehold Township could not get much going on the offensive side of the field. Sophomore Morgan Notaro was marked the whole game and did not get any clear looks at goal against the TRS defense. Notaro led the Patriots with 14 goals last season and scored against the Indians in her first career game.

“Our defense has been working hard all summer for this,” Gordon said. “They remember last year we made one defensive mistake and that game ended in a tie. They did not want to make that same mistake this year. They worked hard all preseason for this moment.”

Sophomore Adele Moy worked hard in the midfield to try to create scoring chances for Freehold Township on the counterattack, but the Indians’ defense did not break. TRS used their quickness not to allow Freehold Township space or time to control and move the ball.

“The defense is a very experienced group,” Woram said. “They played together all of last year and know each other’s tendencies and communicate really well. They honestly don’t really think too much and just play. They do a very, very good job covering for each other and they make the big plays when they have to.”

The Indians sealed the victory with 3:36 left when junior Emma Turnbach buried a shot off a pass from Elizabeth Cox in the middle of the box. Turnbach, who scored the lone goal against Freehold Township in last season’s game, became the third different Indian to score, while Cox recorded the third different assist.

 

“It is a different outlook for us to have multiple goal scorers on this team,” Woram said. “We are going to use that to our advantage. It is hard to mark just one, two, three girls; it really adds up. Having multiple threats really just helps us going forward, because you can’t mark them all.”

Being ranked number one can put a target on your back, and TRS is not backing down from a challenge with a strong schedule. The Indians currently have seven teams on their schedule that are ranked in the SSI Top 10.

“The win will help with the confidence and boost morale a little bit,” Woram said. “You take one game at a time, which is what we’re going to do, but they will continue to grow game in and game out.”