CARNEYS POINT – All it took for the Penns Grove soccer team to get back on track was coach Mano Massari reminding them who they are.
The Red Devils beat Woodstown for the first time since 2022 last week and as sometimes happen after a big win they started feeling full of themselves.
Their next two games were, in the word of leading goal scorer Juan Ortiz, “really, really bad for us.” The losses they incurred threatened their chances for a first-round home playoff game.
But a meeting between Massari, assistant coach Jesus Lopez and the captains, then the reminder to the players of who they were and one key lineup switch and all was right with their world again.
The Red Devils scored two goals in the first six minutes, Ortiz had a hat trick and they rocked Clayton 7-1 in their regular-season finale that ended by rule with 18 minutes left on the clock.
“I think last week was a big reality check for them,” Massari said. “We got hot for a while, we beat a division rival in Woodstown that a lot of these guys haven’t done in a couple years and I think they felt they did their job and they could take their foot off the gas. I keep telling them we’ve got to keep going.
“We tend to take three steps forward and five steps back and that’s what happened last week. We’ve got to find a way to build on wins instead of regressing after a win.”
But they did more than just talk about what needed to change. Massari flip-flopped two players in the lineup and the effects were immediate.
Right wing David Adu switched places with left back Denis DePaz for the first time and they pumped in three goals between them. DePaz scored a goal in each half, the first two goals of his career, and Adu scored midway through the first half. Cameron Vile also scored in the first half
“David has a really strong engine, he’s got a lot of endurance, got good speed, but he struggles with finishing,” Massari said. “Denis is a much better finisher than David, doesn’t have the speed or the endurance, but finishes. Juan needed help up top, Prince (Ledbetter) needed help up top, and I think Denis is a good complement to those two.”
Senior back Richie Vichi said the two quick early goals showed how much the Red Devils wanted things back to the way they were before the slide.
“It was way different today than it had been,” Vichi said. “We had a different vibe. The whole mood was different. We just wanted to win. We needed a win and were going hard for everything. It was good to come back from where we were.”
The other three goals came off the feet of Ortiz, moving him within one of tying the single-season school record. The first-team Diamond Division forward now has 25 goals this season. Sebastian Reyes scored 26 for the Red Devils in 2017. Ortiz said he didn’t know anything about Reyes of the record until someone brought it to his attention in the middle of the season.
He didn’t start the match, but did go in during the first half and scored his first goal in the final minute when he redirected a pass from Vichi. He went back in after Kevin Mosley got the Clippers on the board in the 51st minute with Massari giving him a five-minute window to score. The time was just about to run out when he overran a long pass from Stuart Mondragon, recovered it when the keeper came out to challenge and sent it into an open goal ot make it 6-1. His third goal to end the game came on a pass from Findy Fins.
“We had a meeting and (Massari) reminded us who we are as a team and told us we’ve got to finish the season on the right path,” Ortiz said. “Last week there were two games that were really, really bad for us. We beat Woodstown and we got cocky. We have to finish off this season on the right path. We’ve got to go into the playoffs with confidence and that’s what we did.”
The win gave the Red Devils (10-6-1) their first 10-win season under Massari; they had won nine each of the last two years. They open the South Jersey Group 1 playoffs Wednesday as the seventh seed hosting Glassboro, the first of the teams that beat them during last week’s funk.
“Only time will tell” if they’ve righted the ship, Massari said.
“It’s up to them to continue to grow and not regress,” he said.
GIRLS SOCCER
CLAYTON 1, PENNS GROVE 0: Audrina Giglio scored the game’s only goal in the first half.