By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
PLEASANTVILLE — In the old baseball poem, “Casey at the Bat”, the final line reads: “There is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.”
The Pleasantville High girls soccer team can relate to that sentiment of despair.
In the 11 seasons leading up to 2024, the Greyhounds won just 10 games and lost 138. They suffered through four winless seasons and five other seasons with just one win. This program knows all about heartache and defeat.
That’s what made Tuesday night — the Greyhounds’ Senior Night — so special. They dominated Buena Regional, racing out to a 3-0 halftime lead before cruising to a 7-1 victory, a win that locked up the first division title in program history.
The Greyhounds are Cape-Atlantic League United Division champions. Let that sink in for a minute. This year’s seniors had just two wins to their credit heading into their junior years. Now, they are 13-1 and poised to make an appearance in the CAL Tournament for the first time ever.
“This game clinched it for us, so now we can say we’re division champs for the first time ever in the history of the program. It’s amazing. It’s amazing to be here. I never thought we’d be here, but we are because the girls put in the work, and it’s paying off,” said longtime Pleasantville head coah Erik Clark. “We have a few key players. Diana Ruiz came in four years ago, we got Darexy Monroy three years ago and this year we added (freshman) Isabella Alvarez. With them as a core, the girls can build around that and there has been tremendous improvement this year.”
Pleasantville started things off 11 minutes in when Monroy launched a corner kick to the far post that Alvarez headed in for a 1-0 lead. That would be a harbinger of things to come, as the Greyhounds notched two more goals before the intermission. In the 25th minute, Janderlys Reyes made a run down the left side and put a ball through to Monroy, who took a touch and finished into the right corner of the goal for a 2-0 lead.
The Hounds pushed their lead to 3-0 late in the first half on a goal from 25 yards out by Ruiz, who finished with a hat trick. Pleasantville made it 5-0 early in the second half on a great shot by Alvarez, who took a direct kick from 28 yards out and pinpointed a shot into the upper right corner of the goal.
“Our first year we were really bad, but we’ve gotten so much better,” said senior Nayeli Soriano. “We’re working together much better now. Before, we had no communication, we were all nervous, but sophomore year (things started turning around) and junior year we got even better. Now, this year is our best year ever.
“This is amazing.”
Pleasantville’s sixth and seventh goals came from Monroy and Ruiz, respectively.
“Not only was it my Senior Night, but we were trying to win the division. We had a bad loss against Wildwood Catholic (on Oct. 4), so it was really important to win this game. We were just having fun, we came out aggressive, and won. It feels really good to get this outcome,” Ruiz said. “This is unbelievable. We’ve never been 13-1 before, so for us to come out and have this kind of season feels really good. It feels amazing. I feel proud of the girls and how much work we’ve put it, and it really shows out on the field.”
“This is huge. It’s game changing,” Clark added. “This program has been around for 11-plus years and I’ve been around for 10 of them. We were used to losing, so this is definitely a game changer. We finally have the right players at the right time. I always say it’s like a puzzle. Now we have the midfielder in place, we have offensive players in place, we have key defenders in place — it all finally came together at the right time, that’s what happened.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Pleasantville travels to Middle Township on Monday at 4 p.m. Buena hosts Oakcrest on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
