Girls soccer countdown: No. 3 team reaching new heights in the postseason

Team: Ridgewood

Coach: Pete Kay

Last year's record: 20-1

2022 final ranking: No. 1

Rearview mirror

Things have never been better for the Ridgewood girls soccer team.

The Maroons have won back-to-back Bergen County titles for the second time ever and reached new heights by taking both outright.

Their 2022 season was full of highlights and history. Ridgewood swept through the regular season with a perfect record and went further in the state tournament than ever before. The only setback was a 1-0 loss to Freehold Township in the Group 4 final at Kean University.

Coach Pete Kay has called the shots for Ridgewood over the last five seasons. In that time, the Maroons have outscored opponents by nearly a 3-to-1 clip.

"There's no secret sauce," Kay said. "It's about the talent of players we have in this town, which is always very strong and it's strong again this year. We managed to bring up three sophomores this year, who will definitely add strength and depth to the group."

Best assets

Ridgewood should have a prolific offense once again after returning three of the top four scorers.

Miami-bound senior Jessica Kaye (8 goals, 9 assists) will be hard to stop at forward while lining up next to junior breakout candidate Lucia Mastellone (4 goals, 2 assists). Tying it all together is UCLA commit Isabella Winn in the midfield. The senior scored 26 goals and 10 assists last season, but her play off the ball has drawn just as much praise from her coach and from others.

"It's the defensive stuff as well," Kay said. "She leads the team in goals and assists a lot, but certainly she's willing to roll up her sleeves and do the hard work."

Seniors Karen Gessman and Alexandra Winnert round out the midfield for the Big North Freedom champions.

The Maroons find themselves in the same place as last summer with four starting defenders to replace. The back row is still up in the air, but Kay said there are a lot of players who are capable of stepping up.

A nice insurance policy for the Maroons is the return of senior goalie Katie Bisgrove. The Elon commit racked up nine shutouts last season on the way to second-team All-County honors.

Expectations

Ridgewood will look to become the first team to win three straight BCWCA titles since Northern Highlands rolled off four from 2015 to 2018.

While the Maroons have more turnover than their main competitors, Kay is optimistic that the talent level will stay fairly similar. His track record on defense has been strong and Ridgewood always has good athletes to plug and play.

Everyone will be coming for the Maroons, but their coach sounded as relaxed as ever after the first scrimmage.

"There's no pressure on us whatsoever," Kay said. "We'll just try and do what we can."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ridgewood NJ girls soccer team reaching new heights in the postseason