Red Devils rising

Penns Grove soccer gets ‘biggest win of the season’ shutting out Group 4 Bridgeton behind keeper Guzman’s acrobatic saves

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – The Penns Grove soccer team couldn’t have been more disappointed after losing its last match after a big win last week. The good thing about playing a lot of matches is the big turnaround could be as near as the next line on the schedule.

The Red Devils scored what coach Mano Massari called “our biggest win of the season so far” Monday night when it blanked Group 4 Bridgeton 2-0.

They scored a goal in each half and junior keeper Dwayne Guzman made 12 saves to preserve the shutout.

“It was awesome,” Massari said. “It’s a big win for us. Very big win for us. Biggest game of the year for us when we came out flat against Pitman last week, so we needed this one tonight. This was a big momentum switch for us.”

The Red Devils are playing this week to secure a first-round home game in the South Jersey Group I playoffs and have won three of their last four games. They went into the match in the power points standings. They lost to current No. 8 Wildwood and split with No. 7 Pitman during the season.

They play Overbrook at home Tuesday and No. 1 Schalick at home Thursday, two days before the qualifying cutoff date.

“It’s hard figuring this math out; we tried,” Massari said. “We’ll see tomorrow what happened. That team was good. We played hard today and came out on top.”

Recently placed center mid Mario Fuentes scored his second goal of the season in the first half and freshman Juan Ortiz volleyed a ball coming outside the box and buried it for his fifth in the second half.

Guzman made several big saves to keep the Bulldogs out of the net. He stoned a breakaway in the first half shortly after the Red Devils took the lead and made several acrobatic saves in the second half.

“He stood on his head again today,” Massari said. “He made saves he had no business making again. He stopped some lasers from inside the box. Diving. Jumping. It was nuts. Kept the ball out of the net. Just absolutely dominated. By far the best keeper I’ve coached and been around in a very long time. Dwayne Guzman, put him on the map.”

Cover photo: Penns Grove soccer coach Mano Massari walks off the pitch with goalie Dwayne Guzman after a recent match at Pennsville.