Athlete Of The Week: Rylie Gillis

HARWICH – Once Ryle Gillis went left, everything turned out right. 

 Minutes after she had a close-range shot blocked at the goalmouth, the Monomoy sophomore found the answer she was looking for. 

Gillis netted the Monomoy girls soccer team’s first goal of the season on Thursday, as she dribbled into the Sturgis East 18-yard box and cut back to fire a shot with her left foot. The ball sailed into the net, giving the Sharks an early lead in their eventual 2-1 win over Sturgis.

“They were taking away my right foot, so I cut to my left and just took the shot,” said Gillis, a Harwich resident. “That was a great feeling.”

Although Gillis found the back of the net, her impact was felt beyond the box score. She was an integral part in the team’s offensive attack and routinely found herself getting touches, even when she was setting up her teammates rather than taking shots of her own.

“A lot of the activities around the net go through her,” Monomoy coach Jennifer Peterson said. “We try to play through her because she has good touch on the ball. She can play the ball, she can hit it well for her shot, so she kind of has everything that we need to play through her.”

After suffering a 2-0 loss to Falmouth in the team’s season opener Sept. 3, Gillis was thrilled to help Monomoy earn its first win of the fall.

“It feels great,” she said. “We’ve been pushing hard and we lost Tuesday, so it was great to get that first one out of the way.”