Despite having an incredibly young roster that includes 10 freshmen, North Arlington head girls soccer coach Mike Vivino was confident this was a group that could do good things right away.
That confidence has been quickly justified as the Vikings opened the season with a blowout victory at Elmwood Park followed by an eye-opening 2-1 win over Group 4 Bergen Tech.
“I knew they were this good. I wasn’t sure they were going to acclimated (with each other) as quickly,” said Vivino, who said this is the deepest roster he’s had at North Arlington. “Even though they might not get completely acclimated yet, they’re really, defending each other and playing for each other.”
One prominent example Vivino mentioned of upper and underclassmen coming together is as at center back where junior Emily Carrera, a returning starter, has been paired with freshman Jaileen Henson.
“Emily is a great player, a high level club player and she took Jaileen under wing,” Vivino said. “It looks like they’ve been playing together for a year now, but it’s only been maybe a couple of weeks at most.”
Junior Skyler Crudele starts at left back and senior Maddie Goncalves is on the right side. Vivino considers the backline to be the team’s deepest position group as Kaitlyn Parenti returns after missing the past two seasons due to ACL injuries, as well as senior Abby Lopes and freshman Giuliana Grabias-Barros.
Behind them at goalkeeper is freshman Zoe Dinnerstein, who made 12 saves in the win over Bergen Tech is starting to show a poise well beyond her years.
“She made a couple really big saves against Bergen Tech and I said to her after the game, it looked like a weight was off your shoulders,” Vivino said. “She’s starting to take those bigger steps of not just making the saves, but now helping us start the attack or helping reset the attack and being more talkative to her back line.
Brielle Serodio, a senior, and junior Lyndsay Gilbert share the center holding-midfield duties in North Arlington’s 4-3-3 alignment.
Two freshmen start at the other midfield spots as Mia Bianco has been the center-midfielder, and Devyn Sullivan has been the center attacking-midfielder, though both can play either spot on the pitch. Sophomore Sara Albanese will also see time in the midfield
On the outside of the attack, freshman Alyssa Sousa already has three goals and an assist, and is starting on one side. Mia Serodio, a sophomore, is on the other outside spot with freshman Isabella Barros providing quality minutes there as well. Another freshman, Layla Mayer is also vying for a role off the bench.
Freshman Alexa Rincon has made an instant impact at striker with three goals and an assist. Bianco is also sure to see time up there, while freshman Avalee Feire is also hoping to compete in the middle.
The fast starts of Sousa and Rincon in particular should allow the Vikings to be more balanced on the attack than in previous years when Lia Cruz was a feared sniper, who finished with 92 career goals.
“As coaches, we’ve been talking about how even though we lost an amazing goal scorer like Lia, now we’re actually less predictable (on offense), It’s nice to be able to spread the wealth a little bit and not put all the pressure on one specific player or two to do the majority of the scoring.”
North Arlington was looking to continue its hot streak on Monday, Sept. 9 against Harrison followed by a Wednesday road matchup at Secaucus. The Vikings follow that up with a pair of intriguing home contests against Nutley on Saturday and Lyndhurst on Sept. 17.
With so many underclassmen in key roles, Vivino knew this was a team with a bright future in years to come. This week however, showed that there’s no reason they can’t compete and contend right away, despite its youth.
“They’re confident,” Vivino said. “They’re definitely confident and they know they’re that good.”
“We have that belief as well (that we can do good things now). There’s no way you can overlook the possibility of the success that you might have just based on two good games.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)