In their first league game, boys soccer defeated Northwood 3-2. After a successful pre-season in which they went 8-3-1 against mainly division 1 teams, the team has high hopes for the upcoming season.
“Starting off with a win is always a good start and gives us good momentum to keep improving and win the rest of our league games,” junior team captain and goalie Sean Salah said.
However, given the tough competition they faced in preseason, the team was underwhelmed by their performance against Northwood, playing down to the level of their opponents.
“We played below our standards. We didn’t control the game and we played way too fast, knowing that our style of play is possession based,” said senior winger Kaili Chen.
Chen leads the team with ten goals this season. However, he believes uncertainty from the team’s performance this past match will not be hard to learn from.
“I thought this was because our younger players felt nervous as it was their first varsity league game. Over the season though, we should be able to improve from their performance,” added Chen.
Despite not being at the best, the team’s ability to still come out with a victory shows why they have been league champions for three straight years. The team is further inspired to continue winning their league games.
“We never take our wins for granted so we are definitely happy that we were able to pull this one out, because it could have easily gone the other way,” junior winger Rohit Chawla said.
Chawla, who scored two of the three goals throughout the 90 minute match, attributes his goals as the team’s successful ability to play as a unit. 
“All the work was done by our midfielders and forwards to set up the goals… so I am just really thankful that I have such a talented group of teammates,” Chawla said.

The team looks to build momentum in their next match on January 14th against Portola.