Soccer season is underway at Wayne Hills and the boys and girls teams are getting into their grooves in their 2019 campaigns.  The season may be just underway but fans are already excited for the chances of these two squads. This article will give you Patriot fans all you need to know about your favorite teams.  Let’s jump right into it.

The WHHS boys soccer team currently sits at 1-3 with their most recent game being a win against Paterson Eastside.  The Patriots opened up the season with two tough losses to Clifton and Ramapo, two very talented teams. The season got underway on September 5 when WHHS took on the Clifton Mustangs.  The Patriots were tied with Clifton (who is currently 4-0) at halftime but could not get much offense going in the second half and fell by a score of 2-0. The boys looked to get going in the right direction two days later when they would face off against arch-rival Ramapo.  Once again, WHHS played a very competitive first half and was sound on defense but the offense could not do quite enough to get the Patriots in the win column. Ramapo won the game 1-0. WHHS lost their next game 2-1 to a solid Kennedy squad. With WHHS eager to finally get their first win of the season, the squad took on Paterson Eastside.  This time the Patriots were much more successful. The boys came out firing on all cylinders knowing they had something to prove and took a huge 3-0 lead at halftime. The Patriots went on to win by the same score and bumped their record up to 1-3. WHHS will face Wayne Valley this Tuesday night (9/17) at 7:00, hoping to add on to their success of the last game.  

I caught up with senior left back Ben Kressaty and he shared his thoughts on his team for the season.  “Our season got off to a rocky start but we’re all confident we can turn it around and make it another good year for Wayne Hills soccer.  Drew Siwicki and Billy Schutze have been leading our team day in and day out, keeping us in line and pushing us to do our best.”  

As mentioned by Kressaty, captains Drew Siwicki and Billy Scutze are the team’s biggest impact players for this season and will look to get their squad going in the right direction.  Backed by a roster of players including Jake Koslosky, Mannut Singh, Evan VanderVelden, Dale Russo, and many others, this Patriots squad will look to change the tides of their early season struggles and make another run to the playoffs.  The squad certainly has the talent to do so and it will be interesting to see where the Patriots end up at the end of the season.

Girls soccer season is also underway and our Patriots team has been very impressive in the young season.  The Patriots started the season taking on Clifton and experienced a much different result than the boys team.  The girls walked away with a well-earned 2-0 victory and thoroughly outplayed their opponents. WHHS had more than double the amount of shots on goal than Clifton did and scored both their goals in the first half.  Brooke Alexander and Kyra Blakeslee netted the goals for the Patriots and Amanda Adamo also added an assist to the stat sheet. The girls were not as successful in their next game when they went on the road in a hostile environment to take on a very good Ramapo squad.  The Patriots fell 6-0 but they would not let this damper their spirits. The girls bounced back with two blowout wins over Kennedy and Paterson Eastside by scores of 7-0 and 7-1 respectively. Senior Brooke Alexander scored two goals against Kennedy while Juniors Mia Lombardi (3 assists) and Courtney Ruedt (goal and assist) also shined for the Patriots against Kennedy.  The Patriots put on a clinic against Eastside with seven different players scoring a goal in their lopsided win. After these two games, WHHS battled out a tough win against Holy Angels with Mia Lombardi scoring two goals and Brooke Alexander getting both assists. Although the Patriots dominated shots on goal, 9-1, they narrowly won the game by a score of 2-1. Recently WHHS played rival Wayne Valley and fell short in a hard-fought game 4-0.  The Patriots will look to get back on track against Indian Hills on Wednesday (9/18).

“We have a lot of talented players on this team and when we put our skills together we are able to accomplish great things.  Our team continues to fight in tough rivalry games such as Ramapo and Valley and despite coming out on the losing end of those games, we never quit.  We learn from those games and move on. Our goal is to win a county title this year and we are growing each game with a number of new Varsity players getting experience,” said senior Amanda Adamo.  This is a dangerous team here and other teams will need to watch out once these girls get going.

The seasons are only just beginning and there are many great things to come for both the girls and boys teams here at Wayne Hills.  The next five up for the boys are Wayne Valley, Indian Hills, Bergen Catholic, Northern Highlands, and PCTI. Things will not get any easier and these boys will be hungry for wins against quality opponents.  The next five up for the girls are Indian Hills, Northern Highlands, PCTI, Scotch-Plains Fanwood, and Lakeland. The girls will look to continue to add on to their recent success. 

Both of these teams will look to add on to the history of these programs and make a deep run into the playoffs.  It certainly will be exciting to watch and I encourage all of you to get out and support our WHHS boys and girls soccer teams this season.