MIDDLETOWN – As the lone sophomore in the Christian Brothers Academy starting lineup, Matt Thorsheim is one of the only players on the CBA roster who does not wear the scars of the program’s only losing season in the 36-year tenure of head coach Dan Keane.

Those scars are now a badge of honor for the rest of the Colts, a sign of how far they have come since enduring the program’s low point in 2012.

Thorsheim added to his postseason résumé with two goals on Thursday and the Colts – the No. 3 seed in the South Jersey Non-Public A tournament – blitzed local rival and No. 10 Red Bank Catholic, 4-0, to advance to the sectional semifinal after two years away.

CBA sophomore Matt Thorsheim celebrates the first of his two goals in a 4-0 win over Red Bank Catholic on Monday. (Photo by Larry Murphy)
CBA sophomore Matt Thorsheim celebrates the first of his two goals in a 4-0 win over Red Bank Catholic on Monday. (Photo by Larry Murphy)
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“I’m happy for the guys, especially the seniors,” Keane said. “Two years ago, we were 6-8-2 and we built back up last year and had a pretty good season. These seniors have worked very hard to get back to this point, and they’ve earned themselves an opportunity to win a championship.”

CBA will play for the South Jersey Non-Public A championship Thursday against No. 5 Notre Dame at Eastern High School and is now two wins away from its second overall Non-Public A championship in four years. The Colts capped a 21-0 season in 2011 by beating Delbarton in overtime in the state final.

Thorsheim’s older brother Chris was a senior on the 2011 team, which graduated all 11 starters and all but two players from its roster following the year. During the elder Thorsheim’s three varsity seasons at CBA, the Colts won a state title, two Shore Conference Tournament titles, two South Jersey Non-Public A titles and also reached the Shore Conference Tournament final in the one season they did not win it.

In total, CBA lost only five games during those three seasons, which gave the younger Thorsheim and his team a high bar to clear.

“When you lose everybody from an undefeated team, there’s going to be some difficult times,” Thorsheim said. “Since I’ve been here, the expectations are pretty much the same, and we’ve been getting better and better with each game. We knew that eventually, we would get back to the point where we could win a state championship as long as we just kept improving.”

In his first two state tournaments, Thorsheim has scored five goals in five games, including a pair of two-goal games and a golden goal penalty kick in a win over Donovan Catholic last year.

“The state tournament is what we all look forward to and I know from being around the program when I was younger that I wanted to play in these games,” Thorsheim said.

CBA scored its first two goals on Monday within 1:37 of one another to put the Caseys – playing in their first sectional semifinal in program history – on their heels early. John Frycz opened the scoring in the 11th minute off a long pass from center back Connor Gilmore that Frycz drilled off RBC goalkeeper Connor Fogler, who was left alone to defend the breakaway.

Thorsheim followed with his goal less than two minutes later, which started when Russell Romano turned the corner on a defender and slid a deflected pass to the near right post. Thorsheim collected it, and skipped a low shot that hit the far left side netting.

“That first goal was all Russell,” Thorsheim said. “When he gets space, he is almost impossible to stop. He can beat defenses from a lot of different spots on the field and it makes him really tough to defend and gives other players opportunities when defenses have to pay him extra attention.”

CBA tacked on two second-half goals, the first on a header by Thorsheim on a cross from Dean Canale in the 45th minute. Deven Bhattachayra scored the final CBA goal in the 70th minute.

Monday marked CBA’s second straight four-goal game, with the first coming Friday in a 4-0 win over St. John Vianney, which played with only 10 men for the final 45 minutes after a red card while the score was still 1-0. While the scoring has highlighted the first two games of the state tournament for CBA, the defense has been a constant since the Colts began the season 2-3. Since a three-game losing streak in September, CBA is 12-2-1 and has allowed nine goals with nine shutouts. The two losses during that stretch were both 1-0 losses – to Holmdel and Freehold Township – and the tie was a scoreless game against Freehold Boro.

“I made up a phrase about 20 years ago called the ‘ozone’ to describe the area near the goal that we needed to defend,” Keane said. “I don’t know if it made a whole lot of sense, but it worked. The kids responded. I haven’t used it in 20 years, because I haven’t had to, but I broke it out after we were giving up a bunch of goals, and the kids really seemed to like it. They haven’t been giving up goals, anyway.”

“The ozone is just a simple way we think about defending,” senior Jimmy Cavanaugh said. “We needed to get back to defending our goal and pressuring teams, and it just started with our attitude and intensity.”

The return of Cavanaugh – who was ineligible for the first six games of the season – marks a clear change in the defensive results. With the senior back at defensive center midfield, the Colts have given up only seven goals in 14 games and two of those came in a 6-2 win over St. Rose between the Shore Conference and NJSIAA Tournaments.

“Jimmy is a big, strong, ornery player,” Keane said. “He’s got a great attitude. He works hard, he’s fearless, he wants to win and that desire rubs off on the rest of the team.”

CBA will face another team that has racked up the goals during its two games in this tournament. Notre Dame has scored nine goals in two games and eight of them have come from senior forward and Rutgers University recruit Brian Hawkins. Hawkins scored four goals in a come-from-behind, overtime win over St. Joseph of Metuchen on Wednesday and poured in four more in a 5-0 drubbing of top-seeded St. Augustine on Monday.

“To be honest, it was hard to see this coming ever again two years ago, at least it felt like it then,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s taken a lot of hard work by everyone, but now we’re back and we’re one win away.”

 

Box Score

CBA 4, Red Bank Catholic 0

1

2

F

Red Bank Catholic (8-13)

0

0

0

CBA (14-5-1)

2

2

4

Goals (Assists): (CBA) Frycz (Gilmore) 11’, Thorsheim (Romano) 13’, Thorsheim (Canale) 45’, Bhattachayra 70’
Shots: CBA, 14-5
Saves: (RBC) Fogler 5; (CBA) Krall 2

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