By Rich Fisher, Contributing Editor
Top photo: After a rough three-win season in 2025, the youthful St. Rose girls soccer team has turned things around with seven wins in its first nine games this season, prompting coach David Restiano to set some high goals. Courtesy photo
The St. Rose High School, Belmar, girls soccer team has more than doubled last year’s victory output already, and first-year coach David Restiano wants the athletes to dream big.
He feels it’s the best way to maximize effort.
“You gotta set goals, even if they’re lofty ones,” he said. “Our goals are to win our division, win the Shore and win the state championship. Are they realistic? Maybe, maybe not. But we have to strive for some of those impossibilities in order to get the most out of ourselves.”
The Purple Roses have already won the Shore Conference’s B Central division title and Restiano realizes the other two goals are tall orders. In a way, St. Rose is playing with the house money this season as the majority of its players are underclassmen who should return next year.
But with a 7-2 record entering their Oct. 1 game with Keyport/Henry Hudson, the youngsters are already turning heads after struggling through a 3-16-1 season in 2025. A change in divisions that offered a more competitive schedule has helped, and so too has the arrival of Restiano and assistant Frank Gullace, who join holdover assistant Maria Rojas.
Restiano (class of ’92) and Gullace (class of ’01) are St. Rose graduates who played during some of the boys’ program’s glory days. Restiano was a boys’ assistant from 2020-24 and helped the Roses to a sectional title. Rojas lends a younger female voice that makes her able to relate easily to the girls.
“We figured out some things to get back to those winning ways,” Restiano said. “We put a renewed focus on training the right way. Our game plan is more rigorous and more disciplined. We’ve got a lot of good players, and they were there last year …We laid down some expectations. When I say practice is at 3 o’clock the girls get there at 2:45 ready to go.
“They’re enjoying it too,” he continued. “This team responded very well to the discipline and the rules and rigors we placed on them because they want to win. That was apparent from day one. They weren’t happy with the results of last year and they stepped up. Ninety-eight percent of this turnaround is on them. They’re amazing players, they’re amazing people and amazing teammates.”
St. Rose has two big scorers in sophomore Cassidy Peluso (9 goals, 4 assists) and junior Kelsey Nitche (7 goals, 5 assists) but the team has plenty of players who can score as 15 different players have goals.
Playing up front are freshman strikers Kiera Oswin, Cori Babecki and Lilah Restiano, who have combined for seven goals. They are joined by senior Kyleigh Foster, “who’s a big part of our team as a leader.”
There are interchangeable players on the wings, including juniors Makayla O’Halloran and Kaitlyn Fromhold, sophomore Shona Madden and Nitche, with Peluso providing firepower from the back.
“Cassidy’s probably our most valuable player,” Restiano said. ‘She’s strong defensively and scores goals. She’s indispensable, she covers more ground than seems humanly possible; when she loses the ball, she wins it back immediately. She’s one of the best players in the Shore. She’s so dynamic you could put her anywhere and she could help us.”
He called Nitche “the best competitor, bar none, I’ve ever [coached], men or women, high school, college or after college,” who works well with junior defender Laney Krosnowski (4 goals, 5 assists).
“They both play basketball too, and are amazing teammates, amazing players,” Restiano said. “They’re the lifeblood of our team. Their ability to take over a game has been evident many times.”
Defenders feature Peluso, Krosnowski, juniors Sarah Hariegel, Elena Scelfo, Alexa Waitzel, Charlotte Perry and Sophie Carlotz, and senior Reilly Sherman. They play in front of standout junior goalie Chloe Kaczka.
The unit allowed just 12 goals in its first nine games and had three shutouts.
“We’re very strong in the defensive end,” Restiano said. “Reilly is the rock at center back; we have a lot of players as our outside backs. They do the hard work, all the running. They sacrifice themselves and put the team first. Chloe Kaczka is one of the best keepers in the area; she’s a brick wall for us. She’s smart, she’s strong.”
Restiano feels the best part of his team is its youth, as it could be poised for a huge 2027 campaign. But that doesn’t mean anyone is treating this season as mere preparation.
“Next year if all things remain consistent, we should be even better,” the coach said. “But I know Frank and Maria and every single one of these girls are not happy with just doing better than last year. … We are squarely focused on beating the rest of the teams in front of us … We know what we need to do and we’re up for it.”