Ridgewood Girls Soccer Team Continues To Exceed Expectations

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Having graduated a talented class of seniors, including the starting goalkeeper, four defenders, two midfielders and two forwards, the Ridgewood High School girls soccer team still faced comparisons with last year's team, which had hit heights of success not seen in nearly three decades.

Despite losing key players, Ridgewood continued to march forward and redevelop the team, and this season, the girls not only lived up to expectations but surpassed them.

In the 2021-22 season, Ridgewood claimed the county title for the first time since 1994 and the state sectional title for the first time since 1997. Additionally, the team owned a 20-3 record.

The goal this year, Coach Pete Kay said, was to continue to perform strongly in these competitions. And the girls, he noted, managed to do this, successfully retaining both titles. On top of that, the 2022-23 team progressed to the state group finals for the first time in history, and finished the season with a 20-1 record.

"After last year, many people expected that the team would repeat its success but it's not as easy as just walking on the field and it happens," Kay said. "Every year, many talented players graduate and you have to almost start again and figure out who will replace those who have gone before them."

Kay said that that the team needed to rebuild around the talented players who remained, and "thankfully," there were several remaining players from the squad last year, even if they had not necessarily played starring roles.

"Their turn was this year and they seized their opportunity," he said, adding that the team performed at an outstanding level all season. " Winning 20 games out of 21 is proof of the consistency and the level of this group this year."

With an unbeaten record before the Group 4 final of the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association Group Tournament last week, Ridgewood was in red-hot form and seemed primed to pull out a win.

But an early one-goal deficit cost the team the win, with the game against Freehold Township ending 1-0.

"The girls showed up, fought hard, worked tirelessly for each other and played a high level game. Unfortunately we just couldn't quite find the breakthrough to tie the game," Kay said. "We feel we can compete with every team we play against and we certainly did in this game."