AUGUST 28, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — It’s the time of year when optimism sweeps across the high school sports world, making every player and coach think this could be the fall for a surprising turnaround, a record-setting season or even a championship run.
The feeling is no different around the Ridgewood boys soccer team, and with a talented defense leading an overall balanced squad, it has good reason to be excited for the 2015 campaign. But with the first five contests of the season scheduled against Freedom Division foes, the Maroons are well aware that all positive feelings could be erased with a bad two-week stretch.
“What we’re really focused on are the first five games in our [division] because that will decide everything else,” Ridgewood head coach Joe Gyulay, in his third year at the helm, said before practice Tuesday afternoon.
A good start is paramount for a Maroons team that experienced an uneven season in 2014, several times rising to meet stiff challenges but ultimately enduring a difficult 6-10-3 campaign.
Ridgewood played its best against Freedom Division champion Northern Highlands, tying the Highlanders in a home contest early in the year and then taking them to overtime on the road before dropping a 2-1 decision in late October.
