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Surging Southern Boys Soccer Slams Central, One Win From History

Matt Manley|November 13, 2024|Last Updated November 15, 2024

STAFFORD TWP. — For a team fortunate enough to qualify for both conference and state tournaments, a high school soccer season has three stages. At each stage of this particular season, the Southern Regional boys soccer team has looked like a different team.

Through the first two stages of its 2024 campaign, Southern was a senior-led team that did not live up to its lofty expectations. Now in stage three, when it’s time to hand out state championship trophies, the Rams have found their championship form.

Facing a familiar adversary on its home field Tuesday afternoon, Southern dominated its third straight NJSIAA Tournament opponent, downing Central Regional, 4-1, to earn a trip to the South Jersey Group IV final.

Southern will host No. 7 seed Toms River North in Friday’s sectional championship game in a rematch of a 1-0 Toms River North win during the regular season that helped the Mariners win the Class A South  championship.

Nothing exemplifies Southern’s progress throughout the season more than its three head-to-head matches with its Shore Conference Class A South rival, Central. During an up-and-down regular season, Southern overcame a sluggish first half to beat the Golden Eagles on the road, 2-1, in overtime.

In stage two of the season — the Shore Conference Tournament — Southern needed to come from behind in the second half to beat Raritan in the first round, then got handled by Central, 2-0.

The mercurial season played out on the Southern sideline as well. Third-year head coach Rob Muñoz stepped away from the team in the middle of the season and assistant Guy Lockwood — who was Muñoz’s predecessor as the program’s head coach — took over as acting head coach ahead of the team’s Senior Night game vs. Wall.

“It’s been a rollercoaster with the coaching stuff, but these kids, they’re indestructible,” senior midfielder Brody Reynolds said. “Ever since Senior Night, it’s been one road, one way all together.”

Since Lockwood took the reins, Southern is 6-0 with 22 goals scored and six allowed in the six games. Lockwood is the only coach to lead Southern to a sectional final of any kind prior to this season. In 2020, the Rams reached the championship game of a modified South Jersey Group IV section in the COVID-shortened and lost to Toms River North in overtime. Lockwood relinquished his head coaching position following the 2021 season to coach on more of a part-time basis while Muñoz — Lockwood’s assistant prior to 2022 — took over the head-coaching duties.

“It was up-and-down for the first four weeks of the season,” Lockwood said. “Since Senior Night, when we had a good night against Wall, it’s been a good run and it’s just about them and realizing they are not getting through this without each other.

“They see what’s ahead of them. What’s ahead of them is real now: you can reach out and feel it now, so there is a lot of energy with a really good foundation to start.”

Senior midfielder Kaan Zenger has been among the Southern players to modify his role since Oct. 22, and he kicked off the scoring on Tuesday as well. Junior Caden Schweigart flung a throw-in to Zenger in the middle of the box, and the senior rifled a shot past Central goalkeeper Kaden Stout to open the scoring in the eighth minute.

“In the midfield, I’ve got to play fast, play strong, not get too high up and just play my role,” Zenger said. “On the wing, I stay in an attacking mindset. Obviously, I have to defend, too, and just do my job wherever my coach puts me.

“We’re a very attacking-minded team. I think a lot of players could switch around positions and we would be fine. Whether it’s the top three, the top six, whatever it is; the big thing about our team is you can put anybody anywhere.”

Southern maintained a 1-0 lead through halftime and gained the wind advantage in the second half. The Rams put that advantage to use on their first corner kick, which Reynolds put on frame and earned the goal when Central goalkeeper Kaden Stout collided with a defender. Reynolds’ goal made it 2-0 in the 42nd minute.

“We always tell ourselves ‘first two (minutes)’ coming out of the half,” Reynolds said. “We know this team can come back from anything. First two minutes, coming hard. We got that goal with the help from the wind, but we got it, and we knew from there that we were going to keep pushing.”

Senior striker and leading scorer Aidan Donnelly added to the lead with a 25-yard free kick in the 48th minute and tacked on a fourth Southern goal when he chipped in a pass from junior Colton Davis in the 79th minute. Donnelly now has 24 goals — eight of which have come in the last six games, including three goals and two assists in three state tournament games.

Central broke up the clean sheet in the 67th, when junior Ilyas Ciltepe knocked in a cross from senior Jordan Benzon to cut the Southern lead to 3-1. The Golden Eagles got off to hot starts in each of their two NJSIAA Tournament wins leading up to Tuesday, including a 4-0 lead in round one vs. Eastern and 3-0 Saturday at top-seeded Washington Township. Central held on to win both games by a one-goal margin.

“We know the first two games, they came out hot,” Reynolds said. “They scored very fast and a lot at the beginning of the first two games they played. Going into the wind the first game, as long as we get on them early, the wind wouldn’t be a factor. As long as we put away one in the first half, which we did, in the second half, we just had to stay on them and we’ll find it.”

“We were talking about it since yesterday: we have to get the first goal,” Zenger said. “We have to play hard, play strong as soon as the whistle blows. I think we did that very well. Everything we talked about, we executed.”

The South Jersey Group IV final against Toms River North is also a rematch of the only other time Southern was in a sectional championship game of any kind. At the end of the truncated 2020 season, Toms River North rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Southern, 3-2, in overtime to win the modified NJSIAA sectional tournament. That was the second of three straight sectional championships for Toms River North, which will be playing in its fifth South Jersey final in six years on Friday.

Southern, meanwhile, will look to ride its recent wave of dominance to its first sectional championship. As the better seed, Southern will be the host team, and should the Rams finish off the sectional championship, they would also host the Group IV semifinal against the winner of the Central Jersey final between Monroe and defending Group IV champion Princeton.

“This is our last tournament, so we are really excited, and getting to the state (sectional) finals on our home field is a big advantage for us,” Zenger said. “It’s not a great field, but we know how to play on it. We know where each other is going to be, we know our runs, and we trust each other.”

“It’s always a dream that every high school kid has,” Reynolds said. “To be able to live that dream, it’s awesome and with these kids around me, it can happen.”

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