Fourth-seeded St. Joseph (Met.) remained undefeated with win over fifth-seeded Notre Dame in South, Non-Public A
St. Joseph goalie Robert Boyke, 1, saves penalty kick during the Monroe vs St. Joseph , boys high school soccer Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final in Piscataway, NJ on Friday, October 31, 2025.
Fourth-seeded St. Joseph, ranked No. 11 in the NJ.com Top 20, advanced to the NJSIAA South, Non-Public A semifinals for the second-straight year with a 4-0 win over fifth-seeded and No. 15 Notre Dame on Thursday afternoon.The win kept St. Joseph undefeated at 18-0 as the Falcons are just one of two teams that remain perfect at this point in the season. “Coming into the game we watched some film and saw they were a tough team, they play physical,” St. Joseph’s Joseph Marinello said of Notre Dame. “We just had a game against Monroe, very similar team we thought, so going into it we just changed up a couple things. We had a good mindset coming in, knew it was going to be physical and we just brought it to them and we got the win.” Notre Dame, which entered Thursday’s contest having gone 14-0-2 in its last 16 games, lost for the first time since Sept. 13. The Irish end their season as Colonial Valley Conference Tournament champions and CVC Colonial Division co-champions. “They’re undefeated for a reason, a home game, state tournament. They weathered our storm, I thought the first 20 minutes we played well, had chances, we didn’t get one,” Notre Dame coach Bryan Fisher said. “I think they were fortunate to get their goal and that’s the first time we’ve been down all year. We had to stare some adversity there and we were pushing to tie, you give up one and one more becomes two more and your belief goes down but that doesn’t take away from what these guys did all year.” St. Joseph broke through for its first goal in the 25th minute when Marinello scored on an assist from Patric Cui. That score stood at halftime, but didn’t remain there as Marinello scored again on a pass from Cui in the 48th minute for a 2-0 lead. Marinello recorded a hat trick with his third goal of the game in the 67th minute off an assist from Carter Stetz. In the 76th minute Luke Murphy capped the scoring on an assist from Braeden Sheppard for the 4-0 final. “It started from building out the back, we got way calmer than we were in those first 15 minutes,” Marinello said of the offense. “They were playing nice out the back, playing through Derian our six and we were getting the ball, moving it around quick on the floor, zipping it around and we were able to find Patrick Cui sitting in and then we were able to play through balls and score easy goals.” St. Joseph credited its win over Notre Dame with the lessons it learned from its win over Monroe in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, which the Falcons won in a shootout. The GMC Tournament final was one of their closest games of the season, as St. Joseph had won four one-goal games up until that point. “One thing different from Monroe versus Notre Dame was the amount of energy,” St. Joseph’s Zachary Smith said. “Before the game the preparations were a lot different, it felt a lot different. Honestly, Notre Dame, like I said before Top 15 team, had the extra motivation behind it and then we had to use that motivation today to win.” St. Joseph goalie Robert Boyke finished with three saves for his 10th shutout of the season, while Anthony Merluse made three stops for Notre Dame. “I think one thing was our aerial battles,” Smith said of the defense. “They play a lot of long balls up high, especially off free kicks, but we were able to win every header, every 50/50 ball and that was one of the keys to keeping a clean sheet.” St. Joseph will face top-seeded and No. 5 Pingry in the semifinals. Pingry, which defeated eighth-seeded Paul VI on Thursday, defeated St. Joseph 7-2 in the semifinals last year. “We bring a lot of guys back from last year so a lot of us were there when we lost 7-2 so we know how it feels,” Marinello said. “We don’t want that to happen again. We’re going to go in there, we’re going to give it everything, and despite their ranking we’re just going to give it our best and see what we can do. As you saw in the first 15 minutes here, we weren’t playing our game but as soon as we started playing our style we were good, so I think that’s what we have to do, play our game.”If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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