Dec. 12, 2025
By Alexandra Lourenço
Editor-in-Chief
As the boys soccer team’s season has come to a close, the players feel disappointment but also joy over their achievements.
The team ended its regular season on Oct. 31 with a 14-5 record. LHS won 3-0 in its first playoff game at home on Nov. 4 against Malcolm X Shabazz High School, but subsequently lost 0-3 to Voorhees High School away on Nov. 7.
The team’s most significant accomplishment this season was becoming co-champions with Harrison High School for the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference Patriots League, a title it has not achieved since its league win six years ago.
Junior center defensive midfielder Luke Werner, who joined varsity this year, said he is proud of the team’s performance.
“We accomplished more, and it truly showed LHS’ potential as a team,” Werner said. “Winning the league was definitely one of my favorite parts of the season since we worked so hard to get to that position in the first place.”
Werner said his goals for next season are to become a starter and rise to his potential as a leader.
“I’m most excited to see how far we will go and how much I can improve in the off-season and in-season as well,” Werner said. “We just have to focus and work hard, and we can get even better.”
Sophomore center midfielder Kareem Elsayed, who joined varsity this year, said the team’s greatest strengths were its confidence and connection.
“We weren’t looked at as a super strong team, [but] we knew that we had what it takes to make a run this year,” Elsayed said.
He said he attributes the team’s loss in the second round of the playoffs to a lack of focus.
“[Voorhees] took advantage of it, and they pretty much shut the game down from there. After that, we woke up and we started playing our game, but it was too late,” Elsayed said.
With the loss of strong seniors, including captains and forwards Robby Dasler Jr. and Ariel Trelles-Calle, Elsayed said he expects the team to be regarded as underdogs next season.
“It’s hard to predict where we’ll be in a year, but I know that if we end up working hard as a team and we end up picking up where we left off this year, I think we’ll definitely be in good shape to go far,” Elsayed said.
Senior captain and goalkeeper Maksym Dmochowski, a three-year varsity player, said the team struggled to bounce back after Voorhees made three early goals.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” Dmochowski said. “When they scored that first goal, everybody kind of got down a little bit… and then [Voorhees] quickly scored another one. From there, we were like, ‘Wow, this is really not what we planned.’”
“Winning the league was definitely one of my favorite parts of the season since we worked so hard to get to that position in the first place.”
While Dmochowski’s high school soccer career did not end the way he had hoped, he said being captain allowed him to grow.
“I had a big leadership role, most definitely, and I embraced it and was able to be a better person, be a better role model for people, for my teammates,” Dmochowski said. “I never really had those kinds of skills until this year.”
Dmochowski said he has faith in next year’s team because the loss of 11 graduating seniors at the end of last year led younger players to grow this past season.
“They’ll definitely be solid next year. They might even be better than we were this year,” Dmochowski said. “Everybody has to break out of their shell and play with a lot of confidence, knowing that their time here will end soon.”
