By Mike Stanford
Boys’ soccer suffered a devastating 2-1 loss in double overtime in Sept. 15 in an MSL Conference game against the Fremd Vikings.
Going into the game, the team had been able to count on the defense and the leadership of seniors and captains Eryk Soltys and Nick Jozefowski, according to head coach Paul Elkins.
However, while they have been good at stopping the other teams from scoring, the Knights have been struggling to put points on the board. They scored six goals in their first game against Maine East on Aug. 24, but they had only scored five goals coming into their game against the Vikings.
In the first minute of the game, Fremd scored a goal, putting the Knights immediately behind the eight ball. However, their defense executed, and the team went into halftime still only down one.
During the intermission, Elkins stressed to his team the importance of “playing simple.” What resulted was what Elkins considers “our best half of the season.”
The second forty minutes of the game was highlighted by quality passing and a goal from sophomore Niko Mho with assists from seniors Chris Cooney and Ross LaCamera. However, the Knights were only able to generate one goal and thus entered overtime against the Vikings.
According to Jozefowski, the team was optimistic entering extra minutes.
“We really thought we could win the game,” Jozefowski said. “We had the momentum coming into overtime.”
The team had been in similar high pressure situations before like when they were tied with Elk Grove until they scored with only eight minutes left to play.
However, their experience did not pay off as Fremd scored with four minutes remaining in double overtime.
Despite the tough loss, Elkins is optimistic about the rest of the season.
“We just have to eliminate those mistakes and be ready to compete for 80 minutes,” Elkins said. “If we can do that, we can compete with any team that we play.”
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Boys’ soccer suffers heartbreaker against Fremd
September 17, 2015
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