Boys soccer: A.C. turns up heat on rival Pleasantville as Wilson Murillo scores four goals in season opener

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher ATLANTIC CITY — Wilson Murillo, a junior striker for the Atlantic City boys soccer team, at McDonald’s before the Vikings took on rival Pleasantville in the season opener on Tuesday night. Not exactly the food of choice coach Mo Lozzi wants his players to be consuming as a pregame meal. Senior midfielder Derrick Amoako said he hopes Murillo dines on McDonald’s fare before every game, if that’s what it takes to produce the kind of effort he did against the Greyhounds. Murillo scored one goal in the first half, then three more in the second as the Vikings blitzed Pleasantville 5-0 nothing. Murillo said it was the first time in his life that he has ever scored more than three goals in a game. “I hope he eats McDonald’s every time before the game,” Amoako said. “It wasn’t that good in the first half, but in the second half we did a lot better. That’s the first time I’ve ever scored four,” said Murillo’s whose brother, Jonathan, is a freshman goalie who notched the shutout. “It was a good. Pleasantville is a good team that everybody expects to do well this year. But our whole team is doing well. In the second half, I was just in the right place at the right time.” Junior striker Wilson Murillo scored a career-high four goals in Atlantic City’s 5-0 win over rival Pleasantville on Tuesday in the season opener for both teams. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) Murillo broke the scoreless tie in the first half when he corralled a ball about 12 yards out, took one touch and drilled a shot past the diving Alexis Olivera into the bottom left corner of the net. Pleasantville nearly tied the game moments before halftime when Emilio Cortes broke free on the right side, but his shot dinged off the right post and out of bounds. Atlantic City senior Edras Palma then wowed the crowd by scoring on an acrobatic bicycle kick early in the second half. Teammates were still in shock at the move following the game. “That shows that he’s been watching a lot of videos. I wasn’t expecting that from him,” Amoako said. “I thought he was going to probably kick (the defender) in the head, or maybe it would be a foul going the other way, but that was incredible.” Pleasantville’s Derlin Jimenez, right, looks to push the ball up during the Greyhounds’ game against Atlantic City. Murillo made it 3-0 a few minutes later when he collected a rebound and ripped a shot, upper-90, to the left. He added his third goal later off a change in possession. Olivera came out to challenge his run, but the ball got loose and Murillo had a wide-open net. He finished off his four-goal performance late in the second half. “We’ve been waiting for this. (The coaches) told us that was a really good team, and we knew coming in that they had two really good strikers, so our plan was to man-mark Derlin (Jimenez) and Oscar (Mancia) and try to get them out of the game. It paid off, obviously, as they got frustrated,” Amoako said. Pleasantville’s fancy footwork was neutralized by some strong midfield play by Atlantic City. Guys such as Jarret Entress and Jack Crooks, along with Amoako, helped the Vikings dominate possession throughout the game. “We played really well as a team. I feel like if we play like this, we can go far this year,” Amoako said. “Last year, we got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. Pleasantville has been our rivals. We know most of their squad. We knew this was a game we had to win to get the bragging rights right from the start.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays