Nov. 14, 2023
By Rebecca Ruiz
Staff Writer
After a challenging season, the boys soccer team made it to the semifinal round of state sectionals where it lost 8-1 in an away game against Bernards High School on Nov. 1. The team ended its regular season on Oct. 23 with a 7-9-2 record.
Junior goalie Matthew Makar, who made 87 saves this season and has been on varsity for three years, said the team especially struggled with defense.
“Last year, our whole defense [was] seniors,” Makar said. “Two of our midfielders were seniors, and a lot of our rotational players were seniors. This year we only [had] two seniors that start.”
The team lost 13 seniors at the end of last season.
“Going from playing with all these upperclassmen to underclassmen [was] a big adjustment for us,” Makar said. “Since we [had] a lot of underclassmen playing a lot of [minutes], in the next year or two, we should be very good and competitive for years to come.”
Makar said his biggest takeaways from the season are to welcome adversity, learn to adapt and overcome.
Midfielder junior Cristian Porras, who joined the team last year, said having a lot of less-experienced players put the team at a disadvantage.
“We lost seven starting seniors…. It’s a very new team,” Porras said.
The team began the season strong but lost momentum in October. The team had a four-game winning streak from Sept. 19-29 followed by a six-game losing streak from Oct. 6-17.
“We’re in progress of building the team for next year,” Porras said. “It’s a rebuilding year more than anything else.”
“Going from playing with all these upperclassmen to underclassmen [was] a big adjustment for us.”
Senior captain and forward Tyler Wise, who has been on the team for four years and was out since Oct. 1 with a concussion, also said this was a rebuilding year.
“Our biggest problem is we need more energy on the field. Other than that, [we need to] keep working on team chemistry,” Wise said.
He said despite the players’ inexperience, the team played passionately.
“The games that we were close in… we always fought till the end,” Wise said.
Wise said he is optimistic about next year.
“We have a lot of younger players, and as they grow, we’re going to have a good team [for] the next few years,” said Wise.
