Walking onto the field, senior Josh Guyer is determined to make this game one of his best. It was senior night, a night to recognize and appreciate those who will be moving on from high school the following year. In this case, the seniors were leaving sooner than the team wanted to believe. After the senior night match, there were only two matches before playoffs. The team needed this game to set them in the right direction, and with a 4-1 win, that is exactly what it did.

Coming off of two consecutive wins, Hampshire was no easy team to beat. They had players who were tricksters and somehow they managed to conceal their fouls, but that didn’t intimidate Guyer. Seconds into the match, the team managed to bring the ball up the field, and Guyer slammed it into the goal without hesitation.

“I think we started out on the right foot with Josh Guyer starting us off early with that huge tearing run up the sideline,” said varsity coach Matthew Lewandowski.

After the start, they kept in the lead for the first half.  “Go Huntley!” was being cheered from the stands as sophomore Thomas Rodriguez managed to score after an intense back and forth with Hampshire. 

With about half the quarter left to go, things began to slow down for Huntley. There were many close calls, but all were stopped by goalie Ethan Kornas. 

“We got a little bit complacent, a little bit comfortable, and we fell asleep for a little bit,” said coach Lewandowski. 

For a while, things didn’t get better. Hampshire made one goal. They almost made a second, but one of their own players accidentally blocked it and Kornas was able to stop it. Huntley was getting fouled often, and it seemed like the boys were trapped in a back and forth a pattern for the rest of the game.

Suddenly, a surge of energy swept through the team. They began to feel power in senior night. With their determination, the match was getting better for Huntley. With only five minutes left on the clock, sophomore Austin Killen scored an unexpected goal. 

The team became synchronized, and they were easily able to open up chances to score. Junior Pierce Abed was able to make another goal and insure Huntley’s win.

“I feel like we were connecting for once. We were definitely seeing through balls, seeing people’s feet. It all came together” said Guyer.

In the end, it was their energy and their teamwork that got them to where they are. While this game is a great win, they have more important things to look forward to.

“We [have] a pretty important game on Sunday. It’s [the] Pepsi-co finals and we’ve only won once in school history. [If we could] make it number two, that would be kinda awesome” said Guyer. 

This was definitely a game to be proud of.

“I think it gives us pretty good momentum for the finals,” said Killen.

The only thing left is to keep that momentum going.