Men’s Soccer Team Wraps Up Strong Season

By Elle Hansen, Staff Writer

// The Acalanes High School men’s soccer team (10-5-5 overall, 8-2-2 league) finished another successful season despite various challenges that arose.

The Dons played a tough match against Mt. Diablo on Feb. 8th, losing 2-0. On Feb. 13, the Dons came out against Santa Rosa Piner with a score of 4-0. They played their final regular season game on Feb. 16 against Ukiah, losing 1-0.

On Feb. 1st, the Dons played Ygnacio Valley, and with more elaborate plays in the second half, they won 3-0.

“They controlled the first half and worked really hard to tire the other team, and then they were able to execute and find the net three times in the second half,” Head Coach Paul Curtis said.

This game was one of their best this season, a driving factor that made them perform strong towards the end of the year.

“The whole team kind of turned and made the decision to want to win more than we ever have in the past seasons,” junior Johnny Roth said.

Much of the varsity team is younger, which has proven challenging throughout the year.

“We’re young. We have five seniors, two of them are in the net, so we only have three seniors who run on the field… So that can be a challenge mentally as well as physically,” Curtis said.

The team was also forced to face several unexpected injuries to valuable players throughout the season, which had lasting impacts.

“Ethan Wilberts got hurt, he was out for almost the whole league season. And then Ryan [Rho Baity] has been injured on and off. Griffin [Dubois] has also been injured on and off. We’ve had a lot of people get sick. Lucas Dissman was sick just now, Ben Pecci was hurt for a while, that really hurt us,” sophomore Omri Noiman said.

Despite struggling throughout the season, the team has managed to work and play hard, keeping their bond strong.

“The way that other players have stepped up when players have been hurt or sick is the mark of a good team, a team that loves to play for each other, making the most of the opportunities that they get,” Curtis said.