St. Joe’s soccer wins first GMC Tournament title since 2010 while harnessing unselfish play

Joseph Marinello and his St. Joe’s soccer teammates had an inkling when the school year began that this might be a special season.

Many of the starters from the Edison high school’s last year’s team had grown from sophomores into juniors. They were wiser, stronger and more physically fit. And with each passing game, the Falcons became more battle-tested and determined to make history.

That came to fruition on Oct. 29 when St. Joe’s won its first Greater Middlesex County Tournament title since 2010 by defeating South Brunswick in a thrilling penalty shootout, 4-3, after the game was tied at one following a pair of overtimes.

“The atmosphere was intense, especially since we lost to them in our first game of the season,” said Marinello, a junior forward from Colonia who led the team in scoring (as of Nov. 7) with seven goals and five assists. “The GMC, it’s always a battle. No game is just clean. It’s always scrappy.”

St. Joe’s learned to navigate those environments so dominantly after falling to South Brunswick by one goal in the season opener that the Falcons went undefeated from that point onward, winning 13 games while tying in two other contests.

When it came time for redemption against South Brunswick, the biggest goal of the season fittingly came off the foot of Mason Atkins. The junior defender wasn’t even in the starting lineup when the season started and hadn’t netted a goal until then, but St. Joe’s is one of the state’s deepest teams with 15 players who have contributed at least one goal or an assist.

“There is no real, I’d say, overarching ego amongst the guys,” said head coach Sam Roca, whose team earned a No. 4 seed in the Non-Public A South state playoffs.

“Everybody’s happy for each other. The big thing you can notice, too, is any time they score, it’s a very big team celebration. Each man is super excited, super happy, and they really do feel like our every goal, though ‘X player’ scored, it was really the team that produced that goal-scoring opportunity, and we all finished it.”

Roca describes what has transpired this fall as a “long time coming.” When the Wayne native was hired in June of 2020, St. Joe’s was fresh off a pair of losing seasons. But Roca had a strong senior class to establish a reinvigorated culture that first year, and then the next few years were about rebuilding and promoting the program through camps and clinics.

While St. Joe’s attracts players from all over New Jersey, Roca says the recruitment is not simply about soccer. His staff seeks youth who fit the school academically and spiritually as well.

“I really think the school has actually helped me,” said Marinello, who remembers bonding with Roca and players on the team during one of the school’s Dark Stars summer camps when he decided to attend St. Joe’s. “I think it’s even just the way I see things in life, too – not just soccer. There’s a level of maturity that all the guys at St Joe’s develop, and it’s thanks to the teachers and all the mentors that we have.”

It becomes a perfect equation when the student-athletes can thrive on the field together, and that has culminated this fall with a dream season in soccer.

The team features a good mix of juniors and sophomores along with eight seniors. Sophomore forwards Noah Charnecky (six goals) and Xavier Welbeck-Taveras (five goals) were among the top scorers as of Nov. 7. Senior goalie Troy Boucher made two saves during the shootout of the GMC final and will continue his academic and athletic career at the Coast Guard Academy.

“All the credit to the players, because they’ve been working hard over the last few years to breathe this out,” Roca said. “Now finally, the fruits have come to bear, and they’re starting to reap the rewards of all that hard work.”

It also helps to learn from one of the state’s most accomplished soccer minds. Roca played in high school at Wayne Valley; in college at the Division I level with South Carolina and High Point; semi-professionally in Newark; and professionally in Sweden and Canada. He has coached since 2015 with pro clubs as well as at Wayne Valley before coming to St. Joe’s.

Roca has connections to help his student-athletes reach the next level if they make the year-round commitment to soccer. R.J. Allen, a St. Joe’s alum and former MLS player, runs the school’s winter offseason program. Numerous college coaches visit over the summer to work directly with the players as well.

“It’s definitely cool because he has a deeper knowledge of the game, and then he understands all of our problems,” Marinello said of Roca. “It’s not just him telling us to go do something tactically. He actually was in the same position as us, and we’re learning from someone who did it already and who did it at one of the highest levels. It’s just really cool, and we learn a lot from him.”

Roca believes that he was a product of hard work because he didn’t grow up with God-given abilities, so he’s able to connect and instill that same mentality in his pupils at St. Joe’s.

It has resonated deeply with the team’s versatile roster, which doesn’t have a star player, yet knows how to strike fear in opponents because the Falcons play unselfishly and unpredictably.

Roca emphasizes that he isn’t married to a particular formation or playing style, and the ability to adapt to his players’ skills from year to year is why the school is set up for long-term success in soccer.

“We have guys coming from all over the place. I always call it a melting pot,” Roca said. “That’s one of the things I like, too, because everybody’s bringing something different.  Everybody has a different playing style, different background, different club levels. So, it’s nice to try to put the puzzle together, so to speak, and give us a little bit of different flavors from all over.”