Major Wins For Peglegs After Rocky Start

Stuyvesant’s boys’ soccer team, the Peglegs, is sustaining a four-match winning streak after its loss to long time rival, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, in their first game of the season. The Peglegs are currently tied for second place with Washington Irving High School in Manhattan’s A1 soccer league, an improvement from the third place standing that the Peglegs have held for the past two seasons.

In September, three of the Peglegs’ games were postponed due to high temperatures and unavailability of fields, a few out of the 27 other matches postponed throughout the city. This trend is likely to continue as the league directors struggle to find enough locations for the games.

The Peglegs came back strong however, with a 1-0 win against Julia Richman Education Complex High School on September 22. This was followed by a 3-0 win against Washington Irving High School five days later. The Peglegs continued their successes with a 2-1 win in their second match against Julia Richman this past Sunday.

The loss of their initial game motivated the Peglegs to change their tactics, optimistic for a different outcome against MLK in their match on Friday, October 6.

“The fact that we were able to compete with the reigning champions just showed us the potential of the team, and we haven’t lost since,” senior and co-captain Michael Gillow said.

Since then, the team has been working on dominating the ball and keeping the ball in play. This motivation has led to an increase in focus among players during practice while preparing for the rematch against MLK. “After the loss, we practiced possessing the ball, communicating and passing the ball out of the backfield,” coach Vincent Miller said.

Junior Robert Nava has played a crucial role in the team’s recent success and is currently leading both the team and the division in goals, having scored eight out of the team’s nine total goals in its past five games. Sophomore Jeremy Moller scored the other goal for the Peglegs.

Other players have also been critical to the team. “Seniors Simon Carmody and Tymur Kholdynak have been aggressive players and true warriors on the field,” Miller said. Senior goalie David Power, with 36 saves in just five games, is the final barrier of the Peglegs.

“The team is doing really well this year,” Nava said. “Most of the goals I've scored so far have been from through balls or long balls over the defenders. I think if [we] continue to do what we're doing, then we'll have a good chance to make it far this year,” he said. As the season has progressed, the team has progressively increased its shots on the goal. In their first game, they shot four attempts at the goal and have shot 18 in some of their more recent matches, a statistic potentially pointing to future wins for the Peglegs.