Brookdale Community College’s new men’s soccer coach is no stranger to the program.
“I’m a Brookdale guy,” the Jersey Blues’ new mentor, Brad Fraley, said.
He was an All-Region 19 standout for the Jersey Blues, leading them to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) title game.
He’s been an assistant coach under Mike Costa and Dave Janezic for the last decade. When Janezic took over the head coaching job at the New Jersey Institute of Technology after last season, Fraley knew it was his time to become the program’s head coach. No one knew more about Brookdale soccer than he did.
“It was the right time,” said Fraley, whose goal was to bring a national title home to Lincroft.
He played in the championship game with Brookdale, and he would like to win it as a coach.
Fraley takes over a team that is ripe to make a deep run in the postseason again. The team returns six starters from a club that was nationally ranked throughout the 2012 season and captured the Region 19 championship. The Jersey Blues were 1-1 in the NJCAA National Championship Tournament and finished the season with an 18-4-1 record.
Among the key returnees are the team’s tri-captains — midfielder Tyler Gilson (Red Bank Regional High School), goalkeeper Brad Bennett (Middletown High School South) and center back Robby Fortune (Raritan High School). Bennett led the nation in goals-against average last year.
“We’re getting great leadership from our captains,” Fraley said. “All three put in the extra work, and they take care of their teammates.”
Fraley is changing things up a bit this fall. Because the team has more firepower, he is using a 4-2-3-1 formation that is used by such clubs as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. It is a more offensive formation.
“We have so many attack-minded players,” Fraley said. “[In the formation], we’ll attack with four players and always have six back on defense.” “We have speed, and we’re deadly on the counterattack,” he added.
A freshman, Ryan Bailey (Freehold High School) is one of the reasons for the new formation. He is a bona fide striker who can score.
Bobby Crenshaw (Neptune High School) is another finisher. Fraley believes Bailey and Crenshaw can combine for 40 goals.
Stephen Bard (Monmouth Regional High School) adds to the team’s firepower.
In order to take advantage of their scoring, it is necessary for Brookdale to have the ball. That’s where midfielders Marco Fernandes (Manalapan High School), Keith Monaghan (Raritan) and Ryan
Nascimento (Manalapan) come in. They are midfielders who can keep possession of the ball and be facilitators for the scorers up front.
Defensively, Brookdale is not as deep as it is on offense, but with the trio of Gilson, Fortune and Tyler Daly (Neptune) all back from last year, the team does not lack for quality. Bennett is also there in net as well. Fortune and Bennett were both All-Region picks last year.
Fortune, at 6 feet 2 inches tall, is one of the reasons the Jersey Blues are very good in the air.
Since the Jersey Blues want to be offensive and keep opposing teams on defense, Fraley has a deep team with 24 field players and three keepers. He wants to be able to keep the pressure on teams.
Brookdale will find out quickly where it stands this year. Instead of starting the season with a couple of easy games to get early wins, the Jersey Blues are playing last year’s Division III national champions — Herkimer County Community College, which beat the Jersey Blues, 1-0, in the national tournament — on Sept. 7.
“We’re playing tough teams,” Fraley said. “We’ll see what we got early.”
The Jersey Blues open their home schedule on Sept. 10 against the County College of Morris. It’s the start of a three-game home stand with Ocean County College (Nov. 12) and Northampton Community College (Nov. 14) visiting Lincroft.