Girls’ soccer is back with a bang at Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
On Wednesday, September 2, the two-time reigning state sectional finalist Panthers launched their 2026 season at home against the nation’s No. 1 team, Rutgers Preparatory School, which entered the fall with a 48-match winning streak over the past three seasons.
Four of those matches were multi-goal victories over Bridgewater-Raritan.
This included a three-match sweep for Rutgers Prep over the Panthers last year alone, which was capped off by a Somerset County Girls’ Soccer Tournament semifinals triumph for the Argonauts on the way to a county championship three-peat. Given Rutgers Prep then won another Non-Public B crown to close out last fall, the Panthers’ season opener was also against a four-time reigning state champion in addition to the best team in the country.
Challenge accepted.
It took just eight minutes for junior Ella Giacomazza to open the season’s scoring, and as part of a day where junior goalkeeper Brooke Engstrom stopped 13 shots and made career save No. 200, she posted a clean sheet over the first 60 minutes of regulation. While the visiting Argonauts tied the match in the 61st minute and ultimately forced overtime, Engstrom and the Panthers’ defense held on over the match’s 100 minutes.
In the end, Bridgewater-Raritan produced a message-sending draw over Rutgers Prep.
Talk about a massive confidence boost heading into a Saturday morning matchup at Watchung Hills Regional High School, which renewed its entertaining rivalry with Bridgewater-Raritan, but entered the day having dropped its first two matches of the season.
But as the old saying goes, life in the Skyland Conference comes at you quickly.
“When we first came onto the field, I feel like we were playing like we had a guaranteed win,” revealed Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore Juliet Casamento, who collected an assist on Giacomazza’s aforementioned goal in the Panthers’ match against Rutgers Prep in Bridgewater.
“However, we should not have been playing like that.”
In the blink of an eye, the Warriors capitalized on two quick opportunities in the Panthers’ otherwise impenetrable backfield, and junior Bella Harrington (two goals) scored both times to give Watchung Hills (0-3) a two-goal lead just 13 minutes after the opening kickoff. While Bridgewater-Raritan (1-0-1) found itself in trouble early, it did not panic, as Juliet Casamento (two goals, one assist) answered just one minute later to cut the Warriors’ lead in half.
Behind the Panthers’ patient but constant offensive attack, their persistence eventually paid off.
Watchung Hills sophomore goalkeeper Bella Carvalhiero (10 saves) and her team’s defense continued to thwart seemingly every scoring opportunity by the visitors for the next 37 minutes, but Juliet Casamento’s equalizer in the 51st minute made it a new match.
In a classic Somerset County rivalry series filled with memorable moments this decade alone, Bridgewater-Raritan senior Shiloh Leung (one goal) added a chapter of her own to the storybook.
With the match tied, Leung calmly delivered a long-range ball towards the top of the Warriors’ net. Somehow, her shot found the gap between the top crossbar and the hand of a leaping Carvalhiero, and that proved to be good for the go-ahead goal in the 59th minute.
Bridgewater-Raritan remained ahead for good, and sophomore Arianna Pinto (two goals) punctuated the Panthers’ 5-2 comeback victory with a pair of late goals Saturday, September 5, at Tozier Stadium in Warren.
“Especially after the first goal of the game today, we realized that we were the better team, we can’t be down, and we can’t be letting those silly goals in,” Juliet Casamento went on to say. “I think we really all started trying extra hard and playing the same we did [on Wednesday] against Rutgers Prep.”
“We knew we had to have that same mindset – no matter who we are playing.”
Even after the opening kickoff, Bridgewater-Raritan looked to pick up right where it left off after collecting a corner kick just two minutes into regulation. Senior Sofia Casamento (one assist): Juliet’s older sister, then appeared to have a good opportunity to score the match’s first goal in the third minute. While her foot and the hands of a diving Carvalhiero arrived at the ball simultaneously, the Watchung Hills goalkeeper won the battle, and the Warriors’ defense stopped a free-kick bid by the Panthers just past midfield in the fifth minute.
In transition, Harrington opened the match’s scoring, and Watchung Hills led 1-0 after just five minutes.
Just seven minutes into the contest, the Warriors already had drawn three fouls deep in their own territory to offset the early possession advantage Bridgewater-Raritan otherwise had. In the 11th minute, Engstrom (four saves) made her first save before she then stopped a second shot two minutes later by the Warriors, who took advantage of the few early opportunities they had in the Panthers’ territory.
Unfortunately for Bridgewater-Raritan, the rebounded shot by junior Amanda Shatz (one assist) ricocheted in front of Harrington, who produced her second goal to give Watchung Hills a 2-0 lead in the 13th minute.
The Panthers did not flinch.
Shortly after the ensuing kickoff, sophomore Madison Brocklehurst (two assists) made a pass in transition to Juliet Casamento, who put the Panthers on the board to cut Watchung Hills’ lead in half to 2-1 in the 14th minute.
“[Senior backfielder Stella Grant] had a talk with us after they had their first goal, and she told us that we had to get this together, so we just had to change our mindset,” Juliet Casamento shared of the early message to her squad by Grant: a key returning member of an elite Panthers’ backfield that surrendered just 11 total goals in its final 11 matches of last season.
“I was just really trying to get the ball and score.”
This statistic also factors in three of those goals occurring in one match on the road against Rutgers Prep: a respectable 3-1 loss to the Argonauts in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals back on October 18, 2025.
After its offense finally broke through, Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense looked like it was consistent with those aforementioned numbers it posted late last fall.
A well-placed free kick from just beyond midfield by senior forward Olivia Bello (one assist) threatened to double Watchung Hills’ lead, but the resulting shot in the 16th minute sailed just right of the Panthers’ right crossbar. Bello then launched another ball from long range three minutes later, but the ball flew over Bridgewater-Raritan’s net in the Warriors’ bid for more breathing room.
Still trailing by just one goal, Bridgewater-Raritan’s offense took over the rest of the first half.
Sophia and Juliet Casamento both answered with quick shots for the Panthers, who produced their second corner-kick opportunity of the match in the 24th minute, and senior backfielder Maddy Corbitt delivered another free kick into the Warriors’ penalty area two minutes later. Bridgewater-Raritan then collected four more shots one minute apart, including a solid header by senior Summer Winchock (one assist) that rolled just left of Watchung Hills’ crossbar in the 30th minute.
A similar free kick by Corbitt was then delivered into the center of the Warriors’ box, but Watchung Hills’ defense again survived in the 32nd minute before its offense finally got two more shots off one minute before halftime.
This time, Bridgewater-Raritan kept its 2-1 deficit intact at the break, but it was clearly knocking on the door.
Another free kick by the Panthers in the 46th minute cracked it open some more, and a busy 49th minute consisting of a thwarted corner kick, deflected rebound, blocked ricochet, and saved shot by Carvalhiero pushed it open further.
In the 51st minute, Bridgewater-Raritan finally kicked it down.
On a pass from her older sister, Juliet Casamento booted a ball that painted the bottom-right corner of the Warriors’ net to make it a new match, 2-2, at Tozier Stadium.
Grant then delivered a key stop on a ball that finally got behind the Panthers’ backfield near the Warriors’ sideline in the 53rd minute, but Bello rocketed Watchung Hills’ first corner kick four minutes later. While the attempt at breaking the deadlock failed, freshman Katarina Ferreira answered with a stop deep in transition for Watchung Hills in the 57th minute.
Then, Leung found herself with the ball two minutes later for the Panthers.
Her incredible shot proved to be the match-winner for Bridgewater-Raritan, which took a 3-2 lead in the 59th minute and seemed to have plenty of breathing room given the clean sheet its defense continued to post after the match’s first 13 minutes.
“It felt really good and it was crazy,” Leung said afterwards about her miraculous shot.
“I just saw everyone running towards me after it went in, and I was really happy, because we really needed that.”
A catch by Engstrom on Watchung Hills’ ensuing corner-kick attempt in the 61st minute proved to be the best opportunity the Warriors had at an equalizer at that point. Including a shot by Bridgewater-Raritan that rolled under an inch from the left crossbar, the Panthers found themselves with three borderline shots that continued to keep Watchung Hills’ defense on its toes.
Pinto then finally broke through in the 69th minute to extend the Panthers’ lead to what seemed like an insurmountable 4-2, and on a well-placed cross by Juliet Casamento in the 75th minute, Pinto put the exclamation point on Bridgewater-Raritan’s 5-2 victory.
“I just had the urgency to get the ball into the back of the net,” Pinto said of her late offensive explosion for Bridgewater-Raritan.
Most importantly, it capped off a stretch of five unanswered goals to end the match for Bridgewater-Raritan – all of them being scored after it initially trailed by two goals.
“It shows that we’re the better team and that we’re not messing around,” declared Leung of the Panthers’ strong finish to their victory over Watchung Hills, which had won five straight matchups over Bridgewater-Raritan following the Panthers’ 2-0 victory over the Warriors in the 2021 Somerset County Tournament championship match.
That was the Panthers’ most recent county title, which also capped a run of four straight crowns from 2017-21.
Bridgewater-Raritan then avenged two regular-season losses to the Warriors in 2023 with a late goal and 1-0 upset victory against the Warriors in the first round of that season’s NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, Girls’ Soccer Tournament: an event the Panthers have appeared in the championship match for to end each of the past two seasons. Both of those state sectional finals matchups were tough but hard-fought 1-0 losses against top-seeded Westfield High School, which is currently New Jersey’s sixth-ranked team and a state championship contender again in the Panthers’ North 2, Group 4 section.
Factoring in two more victories over Watchung Hills in 2024, including in the first round of that year’s state sectional tournament, Saturday morning’s victory for Bridgewater-Raritan extended its active winning streak over the Warriors to four matches.
The early road in its quest to return to the mountaintop of Somerset County, as well as winning a state sectional title for the first time in eight years – or reaching New Jersey’s summit for the first time since 2013, will not get any easier for Bridgewater-Raritan (1-0-1, 0-0-1). Next up for the Panthers is undefeated Ridge High School (2-0), which leads the Skyland Conference Raritan Division and will be hungry to avenge three losses to Bridgewater-Raritan from last season, notably a 3-1 loss in the state sectional semifinals in Basking Ridge.
Opening kickoff for the Panthers and Red Devils will be 4 p.m. Wednesday, September 9, at Turf 2 in Bridgewater.
The Panthers will then close out their first week of classes at home against Skyland Conference Delaware Division rival Montgomery High School (1-1, 0-1) at 2:30 p.m. Friday, September 11. Also looming on Bridgewater-Raritan’s current regular-season schedule within its loaded division alone will be road matches at both 16th-ranked Immaculata High School (September 19) and fifth-ranked Pingry School (September 29), in addition to a home match against Hillsborough High School (October 21).
Each of these squads could also be in line for rematches in the Somerset County Girls’ Soccer Tournament, depending on how the bracket is drawn up in the home stretch of the regular season. For now, if one had said Bridgewater-Raritan would be undefeated on Opening Week against the nation’s top girls’ soccer squad and on the road against a key rival in Watchung Hills, Pinto’s closing remarks say it all.
“I really wouldn’t believe it,” concluded Pinto. “But we did our best, came together as a team, and gave our best effort on the field.”
“That’s what matters.”