Quick Strike Sparks Manalapan Boys Soccer to Statement Win over Middletown North

MIDDLETOWN — For the entire 2023 soccer season, neither Christian Laverde or Eduardo Russo scored a goal or assisted on one, and yet 90 seconds into the 2024 season, both Manalapan forwards were barreling toward the goal of one of the top 10 teams in the Shore Sports Insider rankings.

Laverde converted his first varsity goal off the first varsity assist by Russo in the second minute of Friday’s season opener against Middletown North, and Manalapan’s defense protected the lead for the next 88 1/2 minutes to finish off a 1-0 win over the No. 8 team in the SSI preseason Top 10.

“I think it’s all there,” Manalapan coach Kerry Eisman said of his team’s ability. “These guys play great together. They have been playing all summer together. They move the ball. They like each other. There is a group balance all over the field. In the past, there has been some trouble scoring; I don’t know if that’s going to be the case this year.”

Christian Laverde took all of 90 seconds to put Manalapan on the board against a ranked Middletown North side. That was enough to get a hungry Braves squad a season-opening 1-0 win. pic.twitter.com/WmXLODLvKt

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) September 6, 2024

One of the primary reasons the first varsity points for Laverde and Russo had to wait until this year’s season opener was because Manalapan’s boys soccer program was home to 19 seniors in 2023. On top of graduating those 19 players, Manalapan played Friday without injured senior Jon Luz, who is the top returning scorer from last year’s team. Even against all that adversity, the Braves unleashed an opening run at the goal that sprung Russo toward the touch line along the right flank. The junior cut the ball toward the goal and crossed it toward the far left post.

The ball skipped across the mouth of the goal and Laverde slid in for the finish into the lower left of the goal with 38:31 showing on the game clock.

The early goal powered Manalapan toward a dominant start to the game, but Middletown North settled in during the second 20 minutes of the first half and played the Braves even for the majority of the game as it pertains to possession. On shots, however, the Braves won the battle, 11-6, with the first of those 11 paying off.

Middletown North, meanwhile, outpaced Manalapan on corner kicks, 6-3, and won the shots-on-goal category, 3-2. Manalapan sophomore goalkeeper Chase Lee saved all three Middletown North shots on frame, including a diving save on a rip by junior Cameron DelGrosso in the 65th minute.

The early lead held up not only due to the work Lee put in at goalkeeper, but also the defensive work of center backs Ethan Dass and Patrick Hearn. Middletown North’s forward duo of senior Josiah Stepney and Paul Que combined for 25 goals in 2023, and two of those were a pair of goals by Stepney in a 2-0 win over Manalapan on Middletown North’s turf field. Friday’s match was played on Middletown North’s grass surface.

“Our center backs were fantastic today,” Eisman said. “Dass and Heard, they held (Stepney) down. They didn’t give him any room to breath and I thought, to me, that was the game. Dass, especially, was a monster out there. He was a man.”

In addition to serving as the season opener for the two teams, it was also the first divisional game of the year in the Shore Conference Class A Central division. Manalapan has been a mainstay in the decorated Class A North division over the last two-plus decades and Middletown North has vacillated between A North and B North over the years, with most of the Lions’ years coming in Class A North. Out of the last 17 Shore Conference Tournament championships, Class A North teams have won 14 of them.

Manalapan’s win gives the Braves an early leg up in the division race by nailing down a win over a Middletown North team that could figure prominently near the top of the standings.