TYNGSBORO — Through two-plus years as a high school soccer player, Tyngsboro junior Riley Mitza has already scored an eye-popping 57 goals.
On Thursday afternoon, she had a great chance to make it No. 58, but opted not to.
Trailing 1-0 in the second half, she took the ball at midfield and quickly used her blazing speed and went past several Littleton players. She cut inside past the outside back and could have easily moved in closer to unload a shot. Instead, Mitza dished the ball to a teammate, but Littleton was able to break up the chance.
Mitza didn’t yell. She didn’t stomp her feet. She didn’t sulk.
Instead of pouting, she quickly turned around and hustled to get the ball back.
“This year she is really committed to helping to turn the program around,” said first-year head coach John Dormer. “We have a chance to be pretty good in the next year or two and I think she wants to lead that. Her passing has really improved. She’s the hardest worker player on the team. She was named a captain as a junior because of her leadership skills.”
Last year Mitza scored 30 goals, added eight assists and was named to the Central Mass. All-State and All-Star teams. She was the Tyngsboro MVP and a Sun All-Star.
She had 38 points in 19 games, as the team finished 6-11-2 and was knocked out in the first round of the Division 4 state tournament by Manchester-Essex. Although this year’s team is young, Mitza feels like there’s a better chance of passing the win total from last year.
“Our biggest weakness last year was not playing as a team. We were all individuals,” she said. “I feel like this year we just need to play as a team and send the ball through space and then use our skill. We have a couple of really good players on the team so if we play together, we can be really good.”
The junior striker has verbally committed to play Division 1 at the University of New Hampshire starting in September 2025.
“Riley’s going to be awesome up at UNH,” said Dormer. “She is really competitive, which obviously really helps in games. She has the 57 goals, which is crazy, but she’s always trying to make the girls around her better, to try to help the program, so hopefully from August until the end of the year, we will have improved significantly.
“Her speed and her footwork (are terrific), but also her vision on the field, her passing ability and she’s actually also really good in the air. You can see that she can dribble past defenders with both feet, she works really hard and she loves competing. She’s just been a really good mentor for some of the younger players on the team.”
The 5-foot-1 Mitza has been playing soccer since she was 4. She followed in the footsteps of older sister Jenna, now a sophomore member of the Salem State team.
“I have always looked up to my sister. She’s been such a big influence on me, and in soccer. I just think she is awesome. She has an awesome attitude on the field and she has an awesome shot,” said Mitza.
When Mitza turned 8, she started to play at the club level and has played for the Breakers, the Aztec team and the last two years with the FC Stars, helping the team reach the national championship game in Colorado both times, losing last year and winning it this past summer. For the Stars, she is an outside defender.
During her freshman year she was also selected to the U.S. Club Soccer id2 East Regional Identification Training Camp in Virginia. That was the same year she scored 16 goals and added five assists for the Tigers and was named a league All-Star.
In six games this year, she has 11 goals and one assist, giving her 57 goals, 14 assists and 71 points in her career. Her lack of height hasn’t slowed her.
“I like to do a lot of plyometrics and it helps with my jumping skills. I do a lot of exercises with jumping just so I can get up in the air. I just try to do the best I can because there’s not too much you can do when you (lack) height. There’s nothing I can really do about it, especially against those tall defensive backs, but I do the best I can and try to win as many head balls as I can,” she said.
Mitza now has a year and a half before she moves on to play at UNH, where she plans on taking on a double major with homeland security and justice studies.
“I want to go into law enforcement. I was thinking maybe a homicide detective. I’m not sure what I want to do exactly but somewhere around a crime scene. My dad (Eric) is a state cop and he’s done some of that stuff and I can’t wait to do it,” she said.
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