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No Doubt: Colts Neck Dominates Manalapan in 1-vs.-2 SCT Showdown

Matt Manley|October 19, 2024|Last Updated October 23, 2024

COLTS NECK — For the last two years, brothers Kyle and Sean Moore have been the players that separate the Colts Neck boys soccer team from other squads around the Shore Conference. Unlike last season, however, Cougars have the missing pieces to a championship roster: a defense to go with one of the Shore’s best goalkeepers.

The result is an unbeaten team and a No. 1 ranking in the Shore Spots Insider Top 10 heading into a clash vs. No. 2 Manalapan Friday in the Shore Conference Tournament round of 16. Facing the only team at the Shore with more goals scored than they have this season, the Cougars’ revamped defense matched the play of the dynamic duo of the other end of the field.

Kyle Moore scored two goals, Sean Moore added another and senior goalkeeper Justin Appel and his defense nailed down the shutout in a 3-0 win over a Braves team that has taken on all comers so far this season, but had no answer for the Cougars on Friday.

Friday’s showdown at Five Points Park was not only the second meeting between Colts Neck and Manalapan, but also the second time Colts Neck took a 3-0 lead on the Braves with a significant amount of time left. In the first clash between the two Class A Central rivals, Manalapan stormed back to tie the game, 3-3, which was how the game finished between the two top teams in the conference.

“We said in practice, we need a different mentality going into this game,” Appel said. “Throughout the whole entire match, we need to give our all. That’s exactly what we did today.”

Moore turned the tide in Colts Neck’s favor in the 20th minute, when he weaved through a collection of Manalapan defenders and slammed a 18-yard shot into the upper right corner of the goal. Kyle and Sean combined to create a dangerous opportunity in the seventh minute, but Moore’s header hit the right post and Sean’s rebound went wide of the left. Over the next 12 minutes, Manalapan asserted control of the game by dominating possession, but failed turn it into a goal.

“Kyle strikes and the game flips: how many times can we say that this year?,” Colts Neck coach Art Collier said. “It’s a big situation and he just kind of calmly waltzed through their defenders. I don’t that he intended to but that shot there, but the shot location was perfect.”

“We just know, no matter what, when we’re up there, anything can happen,” Kyle Moore said. “We can score goals whenever we get the chance to.”

Manalapan goalkeeper Chase Lee kept the deficit at 1-0 with a quick-reaction save on a near-post rip by Sean Moore in the 25th minute and the Braves made it to halftime trailing by a single goal.

In the third minute of the second half, Kyle Moore scored his second goal — this time on a header off a free kick by junior Ben Kazani. Lee stopped the ball with a dive to his right, but it was already over the goal-line.

Two minutes later, Sean Moore took a pass from classmate Pedro Navroski and hammered it inside the near-right post from 10 yards out to give Colts Neck a familiar 3-0 lead over the Braves.

“I think that game was a gem in disguise,” Kyle Moore said. “We needed that to wake us up a bit. We know we can’t just let down leading 3-0 like that.”

“I wasn’t sure at the time, but looking back, I agree,” Collier said of Moore’s theory. “They are learning each and every game.”

Unlike the first meeting and even though it did not result in a fourth goal, Colts Neck stayed on the attack against the Braves. The effort kept the Braves quiet through the 70th minute and even when they had a chance to score, Appel turned them away. Manalapan created its opportunity to break up the shutout with a penalty kick in the 74th minute, but Appel stopped it to nail down the clean sheet.

“Last time we played Manalapan, I saw (Ethan Lustig) go left and I went the wrong way,” Appel said. “I knew the right way this time and came up with the big save.”

Appel played for Colts Neck as a freshman, but opted to play academy soccer in each of the past two seasons before returning for his senior year. He has fortified a defense that allowed 35 goals in 19 games last year and has only allowed nine through 15 games this year for a Shore-Conference-best 0.67 goals per game.

“Last year, I feel like we had a reliable defense but we were young,” Kyle Moore said. “We just didn’t have the experience. Now, this year, we have the experience and we’re going to go on to do some special things.”

The defense itself, meanwhile, has been vastly improved in front of its keeper. Senior Ryan Spencer and Dillon Younger have locked down the middle of the defense, with seniors Sebastian Failla and Josh Katsnelson on the outsides. Spencer and Younger are soccer-second players, with Spencer prioritizing baseball and Younger starting as Colts Neck’s point guard on the basketball court since his freshman season.

“I think it’s all come down to communication,” Appel said. “We had a clear understanding between me and my defense. The two center backs are not full-time soccer players so the fact that they are just proving it every single day is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. Ryan Spencer and Dillon Younger are two of the hardest-working defenders I have seen, and those outside backs too — Josh Katsnelson and Sebby Failla.”

“They have great instincts,” Collier said. “Dillon Younger is a starting point guard on the varsity team and you can see that he understands the movement of the game. You mix him and Ryan Spencer in with the experienced guys and what’s starting to happen is the experienced guys are teaching the guys who are learning and the guys who are learning are very coachable by their own peers.”

The Cougars midfield has tied together its improved defense with its dynamic duo up top, as it did on Friday. Senior Sam Gershon and Kazani have led that group and both asserted their control of the game after the fast start by Manalapan and, especially, once the Braves realized they had to commit more attention to stopping Kyle Moore.

“Ben Kazani and Sam are unsung heroes,” Collier said. “Kazani is just so smooth on the ball and so is Sam. Sam works so hard and for a guy his size, he seems to come out of battles with the ball at his feet. They talk tactics constantly with me and we figure out how are we going to defend a team that is going to play in their particular system and these guys remembered exactly what Manalapan chose to do, where they try to play through and who their top players are.”

The improvement of the supporting cast along with the addition of Appel has been the most stark contrast between this year’s version of Colts Neck compared with last year’s, but the Moore brothers remain the engine of the machine. Sean (23) and Kyle (19) have combined for 42 of Colts Neck’s 59 goals and while those 59 total goals still trail Manalapan (62) for the most in the Shore Conference, Colts Neck’s 3.93 goals per game leads the conference.

“The biggest thing is we have two of them instead of one,” Collier said. “In the past, when we would have one big scorer, like with (100-point scorer) David Tuschmann, we would just bang the ball up to Tuschmann and hope he is the first one to get to it. Now, there are two and you can’t double-team both of them. Even if you do, these guys beat double-teams. They just glide through it and when they are on, they are really on.”

Colts Neck’s first two tournament wins have been against teams it already faced during the regular season and its next test will be yet another rematch. After taking out Freehold Township and Manalapan by a combined score of 7-0, the Cougars will host No. 6 Manasquan on Tuesday in the SCT quarterfinals. Colts Neck beat the Warriors during the group stage, 3-2, on a golden goal by Sean Moore after Manasquan scored twice in the last seven minutes — including a tying goal with 10 seconds left — to send the game to overtime.

With one more win Colts Neck would qualify for its first Shore Conference Tournament semifinal in five years and the Cougars are two wins away from their first trip to the final since 2001. Colts Neck has never won a Shore Conference Tournament title in boys soccer.

“We always say, ‘The other team is always better than you are until you prove them wrong,'” Appel said. “That’s how I always think. Every game, we have to go prove somebody wrong.”

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