By Wyatt Dojutrek, associate online editor-in-chief
Typically, a pregame conversation between a head coach and his players involves some sort of strategy.
However, head varsity boys’ soccer coach Michael Andrews had other ideas on what he wanted the players to accomplish in the teams 3-0 victory against Palatine Oct. 9.
“My one command to them at the beginning of the game was just to have the time of your life,” Andrews said. “We were not full of nerves, not stressed out, and we just played soccer because we love playing soccer, and we had a blast.”
In the final home game of the season, it was the senior class lighting up in the scoresheet.
Senior Peyton Myers scored two of the team’s three goals, senior Michael Kaczowka contributed the other goal.
The assists on those goals came from seniors Patrick Limanowka and Joey Boduch, and sophomore Declan Flanagan.
It was not just the offensive side of the pitch where the Knights succeeded against the Pirates.
Another senior, Julian Zavala, recorded a shutout to close out the regular season in style for the Knights.
The shutout from Zavala showed Andrews how far he has come since entering the Prospect soccer program three seasons ago.
“I have to give so much credit to Julian,” Andrews said. “Looking back to Julian as a freshman, to Julian now. His improvement has been remarkable, his attitude about everything, and for him in his final home game to put up a shutout against Palatine, he stopped everything.”
After the victory against Palatine, the team was on to Wilmette to take on Loyola Academy in the regional semifinal.
After eighty minutes of regulation was not enough to decide the match, 20 minutes of overtime were also needed, but once again the teams remained deadlocked at 1-1.
However it was Loyola who came out on top after two rounds of PK’s.
With the season now over for the team, Andrews wants winning to become an expectation for this program with the dedication of the senior class the past four years.
“They [The Seniors] are all heavily invested in the Prospect soccer experience,” Andrews said. “I think they realized how much that really means. We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the season, just how quickly the experience was, that you have to make the most of it. The work you put in throughout from the beginning of the year, even in preseason, that’s what makes the experience more exciting. That [Palatine] game was a culmination of four years of hard work.”