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The Agony of Victory: CBA Soccer Beats Middletown South in Family Clash

Matt Manley|October 12, 2024|Last Updated October 18, 2024

MIDDLETOWN — Brayden Perry is confident at the penalty spot for the Christian Brothers Academy boys soccer team, but not against the goalkeeper starting on the other side of the field Friday at Middletown South High School.

Middletown South goalkeeper Carson Perry knows where Brayden wants to go when he needs a goal because he has seen it hundreds of times in the proverbial back yard from his older brother.

So, Brayden had mixed feelings after his brother pulled him down inside the box and was issued a yellow card in the final two minutes of a decisive Shore Conference Tournament group stage game. His team needed a goal, but his younger brother was sent off the field for the most important minutes of the game.

“He has been saving penalties for South this year non-stop whenever he has a chance,” Perry said. “I’m proud of him and I can’t be more proud of him. He’s a great goalie and he played a great game today.”

With Carson required to leave the field until the next stoppage, Brayden converted the penalty kick, classmate Phil Bodenski scored the winning goal 52 seconds later and CBA beat Middletown South, 2-1, in a game that was about so much more than the first-round bye in the SCT that the Colts earned by securing the victory.

“We went into this game with the mindset that this is a must-win game,” Bodenski said. “Can’t tie, can’t lose, period. Having the bye after winning this game gives us a lot of momentum going into the Shore Conference Tournament instead of having to play that game next Wednesday. I’m really glad we get to go straight through to Friday.”

CBA is hoping to win a fourth straight Shore Conference Tournament championship in two weeks and the road to that title got easier thanks to the rally the Colts mounted after falling behind in the 77th minute. Middletown South senior Matteo Niglio stole a pass back to goalkeeper Sean Najdzidowicz before the senior goalkeeper could get to it and knocked it in with 3:09 left on the clock.

Not only was Middletown South a little more than three minutes from winning Group B of the Shore Conference Tournament group stage and earning the bye for itself, but the Eagles were on the verge of beating CBA for a second straight year. No team has beaten CBA in back-to-back years since St. Benedict’s in 2018 and 2019 and no Shore Conference team has done it since Manalapan beat the Colts in four straight seasons from 2012 to 2015.

There are also the bragging rights that come with two schools from different sections of Middletown — one a Group III public school and the other a prestigious, private, all-boys institution — squaring off. Not only were the Perry brothers a unique layer to the rivalry; Middletown South starting center midfielder Brendan Millevoi played at CBA up until this season and his older brother, Dylan, was the team’s leading scorer last year as an All-Shore forward.

All of that fueled another spirited effort from Middletown South, as the Eagles sought to knock CBA into the third slot in Group B and force the Colts to have to make a longer, more difficult trek to their fourth straight Shore Conference Tournament title. More than that, they just wanted to beat CBA and that fervor made CBA’s players want to beat Middletown South.

“Something just kicked into us saying, ‘We can’t lose two years in a row to Middletown South,'” Perry said. “Last year was awful. This year, we couldn’t let it happen again, so right after their goal, we went right back into it.”

With 3:09 left in the match, however, Middletown South appeared to again have CBA’s number. Before Niglio’s heroics in the 77th, Middletown South weathered an early CBA storm, including an acrobatic save by Carson Perry to keep the score, 0-0. Najdzidowicz came up with a huge save of his own in the 64th, punching an upper-90 strike from 40 yards out by Matteo Gallina up over the bar.

With CBA facing another loss, it took the effort of CBA senior Carlos Cano to start the game-tying sequence. Cano won a ball out near midfield and rocked a pass into the box, where Perry got to it just before his brother could. Off his line and with the goal exposed, Carson grabbed his older brother and pulled him to the ground, drawing the yellow card and setting CBA up with a penalty kick.

“My back was to the net, I got pushed, fell on the ball and got the pen,” Perry said. “I turned and saw it was my brother and I was like — a bunch of emotions went flowing through me.”

Carson Perry appeared not to realize that he was required to leave the field following the yellow card — a rule specific to high school soccer. That left Alex Siegel to handle goalkeeper duties in his stead and Brayden Perry blasted the penalty kick by him to tie the game.

“I thought he got a red at first, but he got the yellow, got sent off  and was trying to tell (Siegel) which way I usually go. I switched it up and went right down the middle and celebrated.”

Within a minute, CBA set itself up for another goal while Perry was awaiting to return. Senior Charlie Messano took a throw-in on the left side and flung it into the box, where Bodenski flicked a head over a throng of players and into the goal for the game-winner with 49 seconds showing on the clock.

“Coach (Tom Mulligan) always tells me to stand in front of the keeper,” Bodenski said. “Chuck (Messano) said at the beginning of the game, ‘Hey Phil, this is going to work. That sequence, he throws the ball in perfectly right to my head and I just glanced it in over and I see it go top right corner. It was a crazy feeling.”

CBA rode out the final 49 seconds and celebrated a hard-fought win and a well-earned week off before playing the winner of Wall and Middletown North in the round of 16 on Oct. 18.

“(Getting the bye) helps us mentally and physically,” said Perry, who missed time this season with a hamstring injury. “We’re able to tell ourselves, ‘We won the group, we got a bye, we deserve this. There is no other choice but to win this.”

“I really can’t believe we were a minute and 45 away from losing this game,” Bodenski said. “The whole team picked each other up and the response was unbelievable.”

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