In front of a packed Homecoming crowd, Latin’s varsity boys soccer team defeated rival Francis W. Parker in a commanding 2-0 victory.
The match was also Latin’s Senior Night—the team began the game with all nine seniors in the starting lineup and recognized each player and their families for their contributions. Before the game, the seniors shared a simple, yet, in retrospect, quite impactful, message—“they told [the team], this is our game to win, we’re better than them,” sophomore Charlie Dann said.
Right off of the first whistle, seniors Vijay Silvani, Jacob Gonsky, and Diego Delira set the tone for the match, making an immediate impact by pinging tactical passes across the field and driving strong runs down the wings.
Soon after, Charlie and junior Diego Fernandez established their presence on the field, dominating their respective wings of Latin’s attack. Charlie’s performance was highlighted by a skillful turn-and-run down the right wing, nearly leading to a Latin goal. At the same time, Diego played a spectacular game, overwhelming Parker’s defenders and blazing across the field with a nonstop motor.
Yet perhaps the biggest surprise of Latin’s season has been senior Sam Apple, who, following an injury to starting goalkeeper Nicholas Conroy, filled the vacant role, despite being a designated field player. Sam has performed exceptionally well, allowing only one goal over his four games in the net, including two shutouts against Parker.
While Sam’s performance in goal was nothing short of remarkable, Latin’s defense played a crucial role in the team’s success. Sophomore Andrew Simpson and seniors Kai Gosebruch and Ben Wilheim held down Parker’s attack, each tallying over 75 minutes of playing time. Additionally, junior Josh Solovy played a workhorse role in the defensive midfield, restricting Parker’s attack to a low number of shots on goal.
On the opposite side of the field, Latin tallied 17 shots, seven of those being shots on goal. Over half of those shots came from Latin’s star senior captain, Bear Beghe. Bear, a four-year varsity player, has had a tremendous senior season, recording eight goals in his 11 games played.
Bear’s showing against Parker was, as fellow team captain Ben described, “a world-class performance.”
In the first half, Bear had numerous solo runs through Parker’s half of the field, nearly scoring two goals.
During their halftime adjustments, the team decided to maintain their poised, dominant play style, and use the weather conditions to their favor. “Second half, we switched sides to [go] in the direction with the wind, so our biggest advice was to lay off the deep ball a little bit and make sure we weren’t sending it long out of bounds,” Ben said.
Charlie said, “The first half started a little slow, but we showed sparks of energy and it carried through to the second half.”
Fueled by his first-half chances and an energetic Latin crowd, Bear entered the second half with a second gear, scoring a scrum goal off of an assist from junior Odin Gill and bagging a Messi-esque solo goal just inside Parker’s 18-yard box. “Bear’s second goal [was] just out of this world, slotting it top left,” Vijay said.
Coming off of their strong performance against Parker, the team looks to use the Homecoming game as a learning opportunity for their upcoming playoff run. “We’ve had a lot of games this year where we’ve won 1-0,” Vijay said. “We want to play like how we won [against Parker]—[putting] teams away. That’s going to be bigger as we move into the playoffs.”
Indeed, the team has only seven games left in their regular season and aims to continue their winning streak as they enter the playoffs. “We’re feeling great now,” Ben said. “The goal right now is to finish out [the season] and take care of business and win ISL. After that, we look to win Regionals and Sectionals.”
