SOMERSET — The truly great teams don’t merely play to beat their opponents, they play to their own standard of excellence. With one final emphatic performance, the Ramapo boys soccer team proved their greatness is in a rarified stratosphere.
Ramapo (21-1) dismantled Middletown South (17-4-1) in the Group 3 state championship on Saturday afternoon, cruising to a 5-1 victory in a dominant showing from start to finish.
“When we get on the field in practice,” Ramapo coach Evan Baumgarten said. “The minute it starts, the standards are high. And we’re pushing them along, we do our best to create an environment that’s hard. So when they play in the games, they’ve been through it.”
The higher echelon of play was evident within the first six minutes of Ramapo taking the field for the state final. Caden O’Connell broke loose on the left wing in the fourth minute and lofted in perfectly-timed shot as the goalkeeper was drawn out. Two minutes later, he capitalized on a rebound that landed at his feet and fired it back into the net to give the Raiders the early 2-0 lead.
“Our coaches, like Coach (Brian) Winiarski, they do such a great job of checking out the other team and telling us about the players and the different gaps that we can get,” O’Connell said. “So we just put it all together as soon as we got into the game.”
The lone goal the Raiders’ conceded, just the fourth allowed amidst an 18-game win streak, was a result of a goalkeeper’s mishap on a tricky bounce with no Eagles within 40 yards of the net. It ultimately served as further proof that they were only competing against themselves as they raced away to the eighth state title in program history and first since their undefeated 22-0 campaign in 2016.
But in the moment, it served as a galvanizing break for Middletown South as the deficit was cut back to one goal with 21:58 left in the first half. The Eagles put together their best sequence of play in response to that momentum shift and pushed hard for the equalizer before halftime, but it was only a matter of time before Ramapo recentered themselves and returned to dominant form.
“I felt like after that goal we were panicked a little bit. Started going long and losing possession,” O’Connell said. “And that’s not us. We just had to get it back together, put it on the ground. And it worked out in the second half.”
Ramapo came out of the halftime break and once again started strong with an early goal. Julian Cuttita delivered a laser shot off a terrific give-and-go pass assist by Jordan Hunt. The Raiders once again regained a cushion with a 3-1 lead and 34:22 remaining in the game, and they never looked back.
After raining a barrage of shots on goal to close out the game, Jacob Preziosi delivered the finishing touches for a superb finish to a season defined by superiority. He broke loose on the left side of the box and delivered a low-crossing shot with ease to make it 4-1 with 18:48 left in the game. Then he circled back eight minutes later and sniped in another goal off a lackadaisical clearance by the defender to cement the eventual 5-1 result.
“No team will ever outwork us on the field. I can say that because we work so hard in practice,” Preziosi said. “The whole season, this has been our target. And so we know once we’re given this chance, we’re gonna go and take it. And that’s what we did today.”
Even the lopsided finish was the result of a deliberate, but not menacing, effort from a special Ramapo team in the eyes of the iconic Coach Baumgarten in his 40th season at the helm. It allowed him to play his reserves and let them bask in the spotlight of a state championship after working diligently in the shadows of practice all season.
“For me, I just like coaching these guys. They’re great kids. And it’s the 27th kid, the 26th kid. We took the biggest roster that we’ve taken in a number of years because those kids are great kids,” Baumgarten said. “Those guys count just as much as the top guys.”
The Raiders’ elite level of play is reflected as clearly in the record books as it was on the turf at Franklin High School. They became just fifth Bergen County team to win league, county and state titles in the same season. Their lone blemish of the campaign was an overtime loss to Bergen Catholic that was remedied with a win in the Bergen County final for their fifth straight tournament victory, another record.
Ramapo tied up all loose ends and left no doubt: the 2025 squad was one of the best public boys soccer teams in state history.
“It’s a family that no other school knows about,” Preziosi said. “We focus really just on the relationships, and we know the rest will come. That’s what coach really focuses on: worry about the process, the results will just come as a result from that. And yeah, this is my family. So I love it.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ramapo rolls to 8th state title with 5-1 win over Middletown South
