Sporting neckties that many of them learned to tie just an hour earlier, the members of the Red Bank Middle School boys’ soccer team appeared at the borough council meeting Wednesday night, when they were lauded for a second consecutive undefeated season.

With a 1-0 win over Henry Hudson School of Highlands at Count Basie Fields on November 2, the Rockets captured their second straight Shore Athletic League championship and put a bow on a two year run in which they won 27 games, tied one and lost none.

Each of the 22 sixth, seventh and eighth-grade players received a commendation from the council. They also won praise for their comportment on the field, off the field and in school, where academic achievement is a prerequisite to playing, said coaches Isaac Nathanson and John Adranovitz.

“They represent Red Bank in a very positive way,” Adranovitz told the audience.

Mayor Pasquale Menna praised the team for “looking sharp” in their neckwear, which Superintendent Jared Rumage let on was made possible by a “tie-tying class” over pizza at New Corner Pizza shortly before the meeting.

“We are proud of what they did on the field, but more for who they are,” Rumage told the council audience. “When it comes to citizenship on and off the field, they are second to none.”

(Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)