Christian Brother Academy
Christian Brothers Academy once again finds themselves as one of the elite teams in the Shore Conference and once again finds themselves as the hunted team. Currently sitting at a record of 10-3 overall and 5-1 in A North, the Colts will try to fend off a late season push from Howell and Freehold Township for the division crown.
CBA ended the month of September with a record of 9-1 with their lone loss coming against Saint Benedicts Prep by a score of 3-0. In the nine wins the Colts outscored their opponents, 29-8, with Ocean Township pushing the Colts to the brink. With the game knotted at 2-2 late in the second half and the Spartans looking to upset the Colts, Luke Pascarella buried home a rebound shot from Jack Gill to seal the win, 3-2.
Since the turn of the calendar the Colts have found little to be happy about, going 1-2 with losses to Howell and Holmdel and their lone win against Manalapan. The Colts will look to rebound before the Shore Conference Tournament cutoff with Freehold Township on Oct. 10.
Howell
The team that many did not give a chance to compete for a division crown this year because of losses to graduation, have found themselves on the brink of taking down CBA for the division crown. This is in large part to their 1-0 victory over Christian Brothers last week when Mike Anello scored the lone goal of the contest when he buried home a pass from Kyle Clark.
The Rebels were a team many had as a rebounding team this year that would be in the middle of the pack, but now with just two games left in tight A North, the Rebels have games against Middletown North on Oct. 8 and Manalapan on Oct. 10 to take care of. Currently the Rebels sit at 9-3 overall and 4-2 in conference.
Freehold Township
The Patriots find themselves on the outside looking in but still have a shot at the A North title when they host Christian Brothers Academy on Oct. 10. Freehold Township owns the tie-breaker over Howell whom they beat earlier in the year, 2-1. The month of October so far has not been kind to them, dropping a 2-0 contest to Middletown South and a 3-2 contest to Jackson Memorial. They did rebound from the Eagles loss when they traveled to a tough Long Branch squad and knocked off the Green Wave, 3-1.
Ranney
Ranney looks to continue their late season charge towards the Shore Conference and NJSIAA tournaments and the emotion showed on Friday night with a thrilling overtime win against a tough Mater Dei Prep team that tried to play spoilers on the Panthers’ Senior Night.
Mater Dei Prep came out aggressive and out-ran Ranney in the first half and took a halftime lead of 1-0. Ranney would regroup at halftime and it showed as they started to take over the midfield and put the Seraphs’ defense under constant pressure. With just over nine minutes to play and still down, 1-0, the Panthers’ leading goal scorer, Ademola Odunlami, ripped a shot in the upper corner to tie the contest at 1-1, forcing overtime. It took Ranney just four minutes to get the game-winner when Odunlami scored his second of the game and his 10th of the season.
With the win, the Panthers improved to 5-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play. They will need to take care of Barnegat and Red Bank Catholic or split to make the SCT that holds their seeding meeting on Wednesday night.
Holmdel
Holmdel is once again peeking at the right time and that is not good news for the rest of the Shore Conference and state opponents. The Hornets are currently sitting at 11-0 overall and 5-0 in conference play, with Shore Regional and Allentown left on their regular season schedule. After outscoring their opponents, 35-4, with seven shutouts, Holmdel once again looks like the team to beat in the Shore Conference Tournament.
The Hornets got a glimpse at their most likely opponent for the Shore Conference Tournament final, should they both advance that far, when they hosted Christian Brothers Academy on Saturday. Leading 1-0 at the half, Holmdel held off a great push from the Colts and finished off CBA, 3-1. With the win, the Hornets still have not lost to a Shore Conference team since 2016.
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