Boys soccer capped off an amazing season a hard-fought loss to an undefeated Huntingtown squad. The boys lost the game 3-1 but never gave up after Huntingtown went up 3-0 at the half.

Huntingtown came into the game with zero losses, but our boys didn’t seem affected by that fact. Huntingtown delivered three quick strikes in the first half. In the second half, senior goalie Jorge Galvez put the ‘Rines on the board a little too late with a goal of his own. “We [were] very confident… we [would] score a lot of goals,” sophomore Nelson Contreras said.

In the sectional finals, the boys faced the Blake Bengals team and won, 1-0, with senior Shawn Simpson scoring the game winning goal. Contreras added, “I was very happy and it brought us one step closer to state championships.”   But, Contreras said, “We need better communication for next game.”

“We had some injured players but still pulled through and won,” junior Jojo Cann said.

The journey to the regional finals were not easy. The boys had to through the Magruder Colonels and the Blake Bengals. It started with a visit to Gaithersburg High School to face the Colonels.  Cann said, “The team’s main focus was to [get revenge] because [Magruder] beat us 2-1 last time.” The boys indeed got their revenge as they beat the Colonels 3-1. They had major support from Cann, sophomore Yann Kouemi, junior Daniel Juresic and senior Shawn Simpson. Cann added, “It felt really good because it was a playoff game.”

Our boys played a great season and kept their heads up. In the end, they came short of their goal but still kept each other close and didn’t let the loss get them. Next year they’ll come back stronger with many underclassmen returning.

The ‘Rines will return and get back to that glorious stage they reached in 2011 when they won the state championship.