Boys’ soccer defeated by Shrewsbury in Pod 8 semifinals
Senior Brendan McCarthy attempts to stop an opponent from scoring a goal. After the hard fought game, Shrewsbury defeated Algonquin 5-3.
November 19, 2020
After finishing off their 4-3-1 season amidst a pandemic, boys’ soccer fell to Shrewsbury in the Pod 8 semifinals 3-5 in tie breaking penalty kicks at Algonquin on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Algonquin was able to hold off Shrewsbury, with a tied score of 0-0, past double overtime until penalty kicks, where Shrewsbury took five penalty kicks and scored five, and Algonquin took four penalty kicks and scored three.
During the regular season, games can end in ties, but in playoffs, games that end in ties proceed to overtime. Last year, boys’ soccer was also defeated in the playoffs during double overtime. Senior captain Nick Alcock claims the reason so many playoff games go into overtime is because of the higher stakes.
“Teams are fighting for their seasons, so people are doing whatever it takes to score goals and to not give up goals,” Alcock said.
Despite their loss, senior captain goalie Brendan McCarthy believes that their ability to hold off Shrewsbury shows how mentally capable they were this season.
“We had a 100 minute shutout against Shrewsbury and I think that shows our mental toughness,” McCarthy said. “If we let down our guard at any point they could’ve scored a goal, and we would have lost the game. Over the course of the season you’ll see us progress in our ability to play a full game. We really showed that we built up that mental strength and we were able to get through those 100 minutes.”
Because of COVID, this season was quite unlike the others due to the plethora of different rules and regulations imposed on athletes this season.
“This year especially with all the weird rules like no heading, there was more communication between the back line,” Alcock said. “There had to be a lot more trust because we couldn’t do what we normally do, and we had to talk a lot of things out.”
However, the rules aren’t the only things that have changed this season. Junior captain Ethan Connolly, believes that COVID made the team appreciate each other more.
“We’ve always been a tight group,” Connolly said. “But this year with the uncertainty of whether we would continue to see each other every day, we’ve kind of become more like a family.”
According to senior captain Luke Osetek, they have placed an emphasis on team bonding this year.
“One thing we definitely emphasized this year, specifically for the varsity team is that we are family,”Osetek said. “Especially with COVID we wanted to just keep all this BS behind us and play soccer and be a team and be a family. I’ve really enjoyed the time we’ve had together.”
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