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Power Move: Undefeated Point Beach Boys Soccer Makes Statement, Wins Division

Matt Manley|October 1, 2026|Last Updated October 1, 2026

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — With each win during an undefeated start to the 2026 season, the Point Pleasant Beach boys soccer team convinced another collection of doubters that the Garnet Gulls were for real.

Coming into the season, that list of skeptics even included their head coach.

Whoever was not sufficiently convinced that this year’s Point Beach team is on the level with some of the Shore Conference’s best teams should be all-the-way converted after Wednesday, when the Garnet Gulls steamrolled Jackson — the No. 4 team in the Shore Sports Insider Boys Soccer Top 10 — by a 7-2 margin to clinch the Shore Conference Class B South division championship.

The division title is the first for Point Beach since winning the Class B Central championship in 2018.

Jackson entered Wednesday one of three undefeated teams remaining in the Shore Conference along with Point Beach and Manalapan. The Jaguars have already clinched first place in their Shore Conference Tournament group and needed a win to clinch the Class B South championship over Point Beach.

Instead of an anticipated close game against the best team they have faced all season, the Garnet Gulls did to Jackson what they have done to all but one team this season. Point Beach has outscored its opponents by a cumulative margin of 64-15 and a 4-3 win at Central Regional is the only one of its 10 wins that was decided by a margin of fewer than three goals.

“We have been tied and even down at halftime every once in a while,” Palumbo said. “I have no doubt that somebody on this team will take over. This is the toughest team I have ever seen at this school. Ever.”

In most years, such a dominant performance by a Group I school would create some anticipation for its seed and appearance in the Shore Conference Tournament, but Palumbo opted not to enter his team into the field so he could better control the team’s schedule as it pursues the No. 1 seed in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group I Playoffs. Even the fifth-year Garnet Gulls did not envision this level of dominance by his team.

“That is on me,” Palumbo said. “In past years, we have gone 6-0, 7-0 and hit that Shore Conference Tournament (group stage) and take four losses, which destroys our power points in Central Jersey Group I. So, this year, am I thinking, ‘Should we have done (the Shore Conference Tournament)?’ Of course. But we’ve got to move forward and take it to the (Shore Conference) Coaches Cup and see if we can make a run there.

“I knew we had a special team. We lost Dylan (Ryan) from last year and a lot of goals and a lot of assists, but we had Evan and we knew other guys were going to step up and come together as a team. But you never know how it is going to go and this team has been even better than I could have ever thought.”

Point Beach’s dynamic duo has been at the front of its 10-0 start and on Wednesday they combined for another overwhelming performance. Junior Evan Hajeski scored four goals and senior Brody Powers racked up two goals and three assists to continue their torrid seasons. Powers added to his state-leading scoring totals of 24 goals and 17 assists and surpassed the 200-point benchmark for his career when he scored the go-ahead goal during the second minute of the second half.

 

“Everybody understands their role on this team,” Palumbo said. “Whether you are playing midfield, defensively, you’ve got to get the ball to our forwards and they’ll take care of business. But it’s not just relying on them. It’s that whole team effort. We build around them and everybody understands their role.”

Colts Neck’s Sean Moore tied the Shore Conference boys soccer goals record Monday by scoring his 94th career goal and could become the conference’s first ever 100-goal scorer, as well as the leading overall scorer in conference history. Powers, meanwhile, could find himself second on both the goals and total scoring lists by the end of his senior season, with an outside chance at catching Moore, whose team plays a decidedly more difficult schedule than Point Beach has the rest of the way.

“Sean is great,” Powers said. “This is a team sport, so I couldn’t have done any of it without my team. As far as the numbers go, I don’t really care about the numbers. As long as this team wins, that’s all I care about.”

Hajeski began his scoring spree in the first half, first with the tying goal off a feed from Powers that Hajeski buried inside the near-right post in the 19th minute. In the 34th, Powers played the ball up to Hajeski near midfield, where the junior collected it, raced passed his defender up the left side of the field, and slipped a shot to the far corner of the goal.

“They are an unbelievably adaptive team,” Palumbo said of his squad. “That’s a dream as a coach. They don’t rely on me all the time. They know the game, they know how to play the game and they know what needs to be done. That’s a testament to every single player on that field and every single guy on the bench. I have never been around a team that understands the sport of soccer like these guys do.”

 

Jackson struck first in the 11th minute on a penalty kick drawn and converted by freshman Mason Monday, who later scored an equalizer in the final minute of the first half off a chipped pass by senior Serhii Hryhoriak over the Point Beach back line. That sent the game into halftime tied, 2-2, with Jackson hoping it had just swung the momentum.

Point Beach did not let the Jaguars hold the edge for long. In the second minute of the half, junior Jack Morgan launched a throw-in from near the flag on the right side and bounced the ball to the far post. Powers made an unchecked far-post run and headed it into the goal for a 3-2 lead with the tally that proved to be the game-winner.

“Everything changed in the second half,” Powers said. “We came out with a different intensity and we just wanted it more than they did.”

In the 48th, Powers blasted a free kick that Jackson junior Brandon Idyk saved, but junior Jack Morgan crashed the goal and tapped in the rebound for a 4-2 lead. Just over a minute later, Morgan slipped a pass through for Hajeski, who completed his hat trick with a finish that turned a tight game into a 5-2 runaway for Point Beach.

“We did not come into this game thinking we were going to get this result,” Powers said. “We came into it thinking this was going to be a tight game and it’s a battle. It took every single one of us to get this score line. Credit to Evan Hajeski; he had a great game.”

The Garnet Gulls thwarted a wave of long throw-ins by Jackson senior Logan Schenk, who played goalkeeper for the first half of the match. Wednesday’s game was played on what is typically the jayvee field because the adjacent varsity field was still too soggy from the weekend Nor’easter. The field is both shorter and more narrow than the typical varsity soccer field, which made long throw-ins particularly dangerous, but Point Beach sophomore goalkeeper Parker Sario denied the majority of Schlenk’s bombs into the box by leaving his line to catch the ball.

In the 72nd, Point Beach made it a rout, with Hajeski scoring his fourth goal off a pass from sophomore Cole Mayer. In the 76th, Hajeski touched the ball past Idyk heading toward the end-line on the right side and centered the ball to the front of the goal, where Powers tapped in his second goal of the game and 24th of the season.

With the division championship secured in dominant fashion, Point Beach will now look to earn the No. 1 seed in the Central Group I bracket, which the Garnet Gulls currently hold over No. 2 Shore Regional with a little more than three weeks left before the Oct. 24 cutoff. No other SSI Top 10 teams are on Point Beach’s schedule and the Garnet Gulls will not be in the Shore Conference Tournament field, although they are entered into the Shore Conference Coaches Cup. In both 2023 (Holmdel) and 2024 (Long Branch), the winner of the Coaches Cup went on to win a sectional championship that same season.

“It’s probably something we should have given more thought,” Powers said. “We can change it now, so we’re just going to make the most of it. Obviously, the end goal is to win and section championship, so with our schedule, we felt like we need to get as many power points as possible. Eliminating some of those games that looked like we might have lost, depending on if we played one of those bigger teams, that was the thinking. I think this team could have hung with anybody.

“I think the home-field advantage is huge for us,” Powers said. “This field is tinier than most. Playing on grass, having the home support, I think it’s huge for us.”

Point Beach has never won a sectional championship in boys soccer, but Powers has been part of a similar ascent in Group I as a member of Point Beach’s baseball team. The Garnet Gulls have won four sectional championships on the diamond over the past five seasons, including the program’s first overall Group I championship last spring.

“We take one game at a time, so every result is towards our goal,” Powers said. “Every goal is towards our goal of winning that section championship.”

“I think we showed we can hang with anybody in the Shore. Obviously, we haven’t played the best teams this year, but with the wins we have against Lacey (4-1 final score) and against this year, I think we can compete with anybody.”

 

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