The Southeast boys varsity soccer team won the Maize South tournament on Sept. 14. The team has competed in this tournament the past few years, finally beating the host school for the first time this year.
“It’s been my goal for the team for several years now to make it to the championship match and maybe get to play against maize and beating them in their own tournament,” head coach Cody Fitch said.”So that was a huge goal, and we finally accomplished that. …they’ve won their tournament all eight years they’ve had it, so it’s a big win.”
The Mavericks are the two-time defending state champions, and they’re one of the best teams in the state this season, making this a significant win.
“It makes me feel really good as a coach. It was probably my proudest moment ever as a coach, because that was such a long standing goal that I’ve had for them,” Fitch said. “…it felt great to just watch them revel in that glory and celebrate.”
“Winning that game was really exciting and emotional because Maize South is one of the best teams in the state, and going to the game, we were all nervous,” right field defender Adrian Puga (10) said. “It was fun, exciting, emotional, you know.”
After beating Classical 6-3, the boys then took on Northwest, winning by a score of 2-0. In the championship, the game ended with a 3-3 tie before the Buffs won 4-3 on penalty kicks.
Armando Dominguez scored the final penalty kick that led them to victory. Diego,Daniel,Nathan and Armando made the 4 penalty kicks. Jacob Lacio scored 3 goals against The Mavericks in the tournament.
The varsity team hopes to use this win to build up and keep on giving it their all, keep on achieving their full potential and keep on going undefeated.
“…it really gives them confidence that they can play with anybody,” Fitch said. “So hopefully we can build on this and keep getting better, and they can know moving forward that they can keep up with anybody in this state”.
The southeast varsity boys dont want this to be their biggest win yet but to keep on striving for bigger wins. They can’t let this be the biggest win of their season but to keep on working even harder and hopefully making it to state this season.
“We can’t let that be the absolute peak of our season,” Fitch said. “We need to keep going. We need to get better, because we could easily struggle down the road and say, league, and lose out in regionals in the first or second round, and it wouldn’t be as much. So we need to keep going and get better.”
Angel acevedo • Nov 7, 2024 at 10:33 pm
very great job this year.