Boys Soccer Team Makes New Accomplishments, Finishes With 15-7 Record

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PHOTO BY LEAH WAHLQUIST

Garret Potter and Sebastian Newkirk passing the ball to get open.

By Riley Gautieri, Middle School Page Editor

On Wednesday October 21st and Thursday October 22nd, the boys soccer team competed in soccer districts held at Springfield Catholic High School. On day one of districts the boys played against Clinton and won 1-0. This was the first time in five years that the boys have won a game at a district tournament, “I could not have been more proud of the way we played. We played great team-ball; We were very vocal, especially senior captains Mason Kesterson and Kyle Cavanaugh,” said coach Joseph Florez. The winning goal was scored when Sebastian Newkirk (10) made a pass to Maicol Newkirk (9), who then scored the winning goal for the team.

On day two of districts the boys played Springfield Catholic, and suffered a loss of 4-0. The score stayed even at 0-0 until halfway through the first half of the game, when Catholic scored their first goal. Florez didn’t feel this loss was anything to be ashamed of though, “It was the best our guys have ever finished. I hope that our team feels that the bar has been raised for them going forward, and our goals should be the same for next year.”

The team ended the season 15-7, making accomplishments that they had not made in any of the past five years that Fair Grove has had boys soccer. This season the boy’s won the Fair Grove tournament and also made it to a district championship game. Florez stated that to move forward, the team needed to work on their skill on the ball, “We have a lot of hard working guys, but many of them did not grow up playing soccer. The only way to get a better shot, pass, or trap, is to practice it over and over again.” One of the two team captains, Kyle Cavanaugh was as pleased as his coach with his team and the way the season ended, “This has been the best we have been in a while and this season we have continuously gotten better. We accomplished many things we hadn’t done in years past, I’m very happy to be a part of a team as awesome as this one.”