Bridgewater-Raritan High School launched its new boys’ soccer season with a vengeance.
Although Bridgewater-Raritan posted a 4-12-1 record and scored just 14 total goals in 17 games last fall, the returning players’ experience in close games is set to pay dividends in 2025, as 11 of these games last fall were decided by one goal.
Bridgewater-Raritan fell in nine of these 11 such contests, which factor in five crushing one-to-nil defeats: three of them to their Skyland Conference Delaware Division rivals in Pingry School, Gill St. Bernard’s School, and Hunterdon Central Regional High School, which were each ranked amongst New Jersey’s Top 20 at the end of last season.
In addition to one that came at the hands of Hillsborough High School, a similar one-goal shutout defeat was also delivered in last season’s opener against South Brunswick High School, which was Bridgewater-Raritan’s season-opening opponent again in 2025 on Saturday morning, August 30.
If the Panthers’ masterful performance against the Vikings is any predictor of future events, then
last season may already seem like a distant memory.
Bridgewater-Raritan not only struck first shortly after the opening kickoff, before it gained a two-goal lead at halftime at South Brunswick.
Senior Kyle Carvalho (three goals) broke the game open early in the second half with a natural hat trick spanning just 6:13.
In fact, the Panthers needed just 60 minutes to begin the new school year with a 6-0 victory by mercy rule in the season opener played on South Brunswick’s field in Monmouth Junction.
“Last year, we definitely generated a lot of chances and weren’t always able to finish them.” reflected third-year Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Mark Heinbach after the game of lastseason’s offensive struggles and Saturday morning’s dominating victory. “So far on day one this year, it seems to be clicking. Kyle was our leading goal scorer last year, so this is what we expect from him this year, especially as a senior. We also have a competitive, deep junior class that is filling the gaps since we graduated 18 seniors last year.”
“They’re stepping up to the plate, and it’s really everything you can ask for.”
A total of 14 seniors and 11 juniors took the field on opening day for Bridgewater-Raritan and the upperclassmen all made a statement in their season debut.
Just halfway into the fourth minute, Bridgewater-Raritan junior Ivan Sumba (two goals) quicklyopened the game’s scoring on a dish by senior Ariel DeJesus (one assist), and that early breathing room enabled the Panthers to settle in and dictate complete control of the game.
When South Brunswick tried to equalize the score on a corner kick in the 20th minute, that early cushion seemed to ease the pressure on the Panthers’ defense, which kept the host Vikings off the board and got a clean sheet from senior goalkeeper Michael Battista (four saves).
Bridgewater-Raritan ultimately outshot South Brunswick, 11-4, which also includes back-to--back stops by South Brunswick senior Vikram Chandola (five saves) in the 24th minute that continued to help the Panthers build their offensive rhythm.
In the 33rd minute, senior Dylan Calderon (one assist) then found classmate Michael Takacs (one goal) on a ball that lifted Bridgwater-Raritan’s lead to 2-0, which stood until halftime.
Six and a half minutes into the second half, Carvalho and the Bridgewater-Raritan offense opened the floodgates.
Junior David Escobar Mora (two assists) not only made a pass in transition to Carvalho, who scored on the resulting breakaway in the 47th minute. The duo immediately combined foranother goal for Bridgewater-Raritan in the 50th minute before junior Jayden Ojeda (one assist) passed a third such ball to Carvalho.
With all of the momentum imaginable on the Panthers’ side, Carvalho completed his natural hat trick in the 53rd minute.
Suddenly, Bridgewater-Raritan led 5-0, and the game was out of reach.
“During the preseason, we had two ties,” explained Carvalho. “We said we wanted to finish this game out in our halftime talk. This just lifts us up to the skies and will bring us strong into our next game. Our chemistry is high right now, and we’re going to work hard as always.”
To punctuate the offensive showing, Sumba connected on his second goal of the game in the 54th minute: exactly 39 seconds after the conclusion of Carvalho’s scoring explosion. The final whistle was sounded moments later at the midpoint of the second half with Bridgewater-Raritan’s final result, 6-0, on the scoreboard.
“It feels really good to break the ice,” Sumba said. “Since the preseason we had over the summer, we’ve worked hard and tried to bring the energy every day.”
“We’re looking forward to a really good season.”
Bridgewater-Raritan now needs just eight goals to match its entire scoring output from one season ago, and the 2025-26 school year has not even started.
While there are no games on Bridgewater-Raritan’s athletics schedule on the first day of school Tuesday, September 2, the team will travel up the road to face rival Pingry(0-0, 0-0): New Jersey’s third-ranked team at the end of last year and the reigning runner-up in the Skyland Conference Delaware Division.
Kickoff for Bridgewater-Raritan at Pingry will be at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, September 3, at Bugliari World Cup Field .The Panthers’ home opener will then be against division rival Watchung Hills Regional High School (0-0, 0-0) at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 6, at Turf 2.
“We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of ways we can get better,” concluded Heinbach of what lies ahead. ““But they’re doing a nice job, and they have responded by doing everything we’ve asked. I’ve told our guys that I think we have something special here this season. Next week, the Skyland Conference schedule starts, and it’s going to be very competitive. Soccer is one of those sports where the better team doesn’t always win.”
“We just have to go out there and make it happen.”
Click on the link below for the 2025 Bridgewater-Raritan High School boys’ soccer roster.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s3di0gsi_7dOGpW1VQuiBU7Xf__MfRRQ/view?usp=sharing