Defense was such a staple for West Orange soccer this fall, so much so that the Essex County team’s consistently-stellar resistance while facing almost all advances toward the 18-yard area ultimately protected by junior goalkeeper Agustin Arrieta never fully penetrated the goal line and into the back of the net.
In fact, the 2025 Group 4 state champion Mountaineers (24-2) wound up allowing just 13 goals while posting 16 shutouts with the culmination of one of the top seasons in program history coming with a resounding 5-0 victory over North Brunswick in the Saturday, Nov. 22nd, state final at Franklin High School.
Veteran coach Doug Nevins’ No. 2 ranked soccer side captured its third NJSIAA state title and first since 2013. The 2006 squad, considered one of the best in school history, achieved the program’s first Group 4 crown.
The 2025 edition was led by an outstanding defense, led by UCLA-bound senior all-state candidate Marcus Jackson along with juniors Justin Amaya, Niko Chiovaro and sophomore Chase Winds, who all shined in front of stellar goal keeper ‘Auggie’ Arrieta, who had six saves in both the state final and in the impressive Group 4 semifinal victory at Scotch Plains.
The Mountaineers made quick work of North Brunswick (15-10), an unlikely finalist in the sense that the Middlesex County school was a No. 9 seed in the Central Jersey, Group 4 state tourney bracket before rising up to be a Group 4 state runner-up.
Junior Darius Millington (13 goals and 7 assists on the season) got things off to a terrific start for West Orange with his first of two goals just two minutes into the state championship match.
Jackson (18 goals, 5 assists), who was a potent scorer all season long in addition to being one of the state’s top defenders, made it 3-0 Mountaineers in the 34th minute, while Joseph Castillo and the team’s leading scorer on the season, senior Carl Hall (22 goals, 26 assists) also added goals for the Essex County side.
Junior Jatniel Vargas-Espino had two assists in the match.
The state championships recorded by Essex County teams during the recent championships held at Franklin High School further solidified why the Super Essex Conference remains perhaps New Jersey’s top high school soccer conference bolstered by West Orange in Group 4 and Montclair Kimberley Academy in Non-Public B, who are both in the SEC’s top division, the American, and also Glen Ridge (Group 1 state champs), who were a perfect 5-0 in the SEC’s second division, the Liberty.
On the girls’ soccer side out of the SEC, American Division member Livingston, by virtue of winning a penalty kick shootout, captured the Group 4 state championship over Cherokee on Sunday, Nov. 23rd.
For West Orange, Nevins and company have further solidified themselves as one of the top public schools in the past quarter century on the statewide soccer scene, as the veteran mentor has won more than 400 games in addition to now three Group 4 state titles and a pair of Essex County Tournament crowns.
His 2006 Mountaineers, with Gatorade national Boys Soccer Player of the Year Brayan Martinez and other standouts such as ace defender Chris Christian, Chris Edwards and Jonathan ‘Goofy’ Silva, rolled to the program’s first Group 4 title with a dominant 3-0 win over Manalapan in the state final.
There was another state crown in 2013 and a Group 4 runner-up squad in 2022 which posted its first-ever road wins at both Kearny and Clifton on the way to the state final.
