Prior to the boys varsity soccer game against the St. James Thunder, the soccer team recognized all its seniors for senior night. The boys head coach, Brian Pollack, mentioned how proud he was of this year’s group of seniors and how hard they worked for this moment.

“It’s really a privilege to get to see players that work so hard, at every level, not every one of these guys has been playing on varsity for years. You see the work that they’ve put in to get to this point. It’s just really cool to see their hard work come together,” Pollack said.

To further this, Pollack added that the seniors on the team have contributed greatly to the teams’ motivation and goals, which will lead them into the postseason, which is coming up next week.

“A group of nine seniors is a pretty powerful group to have, everyone is pulling in the same direction. We had a taste of success last year going to state so they set that goal over the summer and they worked hard to make sure everyone’s moving toward it,” Pollack said.

At the start of the game, BVNW took the lead, with senior Gustavo Silva scoring for the Huskies. BVNW would maintain their lead throughout the remainder of the first half, but with 32:22 left in the second half, St. James would score, making the score tied 1-1.

Although the game went back and forth, Pollack said how the end goal was to finish the season off strong, and to focus on the small details which would be important to winning the game.

“Small things become big things when you’re in tight games. Even [with] the injuries and sickness, everybody still knows that the end goal is playing in the final game,” Pollack said.

The team persisted though, and 15 minutes later, senior Charlie Olm-Shipman, a defender, scored the second goal of the night for BVNW. Although the team had lost a couple of their previous games, Olm-Shipman said the team came in prepared in hopes to win against the Thunder.

“It was great [to score], it’s a great time out here. We do what we do, I just got the opportunity and did what I could. This week we had to come back after four rough games, but we just came out here and knew we had to do our thing,” Olm-Shipman said.

Along with Olm-Shipman, senior Miles Bail, who played forward in this game, talked about the difficulty the team faced before heading into their last home game. The team has a record of 10-4-2 this season.

“For the senior night, I just wanted to get the job done. [We] took a little hump in the season [and] haven’t gotten a victory in a couple of weeks but [tonight] we bounced back and had a good battle and pulled out,” Bail said.

According to Bail, being one of the eleven people to start on the field raised his spirits, and as for his team “bouncing back,” it helped with how close his team is on and off the field.

“It meant the world to me. Just seeing all my guys out there on the field with me starting, was just such a good time. Everyone played for each other, we all love each other and it’s just awesome to be out there,” Bail said.

With only 4:50 left in the game, St. James tied up the game once again, making the score 2-2. BVNW was not done yet though, with junior Holden Jayaram scoring the game-winning goal with 3:43 left in the game. According to Pollack, although this win did not come easy, the team continued to fight until the very last minute. 

“It was a great win, it was one of those ones where it didn’t come pretty. I told them, ‘Look, this is what we’re gonna have to deal with as we start going into the postseason.’ Every game’s gonna be a battle and every time they score we answer,” Pollack said.

Despite the fact that this was the last game of the regular season, the Huskies will compete in sub-state next week. Olm-Shipman said he believes the team has full capability to achieve their goals of winning State.

“The boys are really excited for the postseason [and] we’re ready to get out after it. We came out here and battled every single game. We’re looking forward to what can come [from tonight],” Olm-Shipman said. “We have the players, the talent [and now] all we gotta do is just apply ourselves, put in the work and we can do it.”