Ending a record season, the Scot’s JV boys soccer team defeated Aragon High School 1-0, making history as the first JV team at Carlmont to win 10-0-0 with zero goals allowed in the entire season.
“It feels amazing to sort of be engraved in history as the first team to win all league games and have no goals scored,” said goalkeeper sophomore Matthew Foster.
The Scots played aggressively throughout the game, trying to score and maintain their defensive dominance of a season-long shut-out. The Aragon Dons nearly scored a goal after a corner kick at the beginning of the first half. The ball missed the goal by inches and went over the goal. It rolled in from behind the net, and the Carlmont team and fans took a sigh of relief.
“Matthew Foster and I are really proud of our hard work to just make sure that we didn’t get scored on. We feel like it was well deserved because the whole game, we worked as hard as we could,” sophomore Luke Schneider said.
Schneider is normally a goalkeeper, but Coach Ryan Freeman decided that Schneider would play in the field to switch things up. Even though he had a successful season as a goalkeeper, the team took a chance and felt that the change was “something cool to do.”
“I think Luke did an amazing job,” said Foster. “He made some amazing saves this season, and I just want to say that he sort of carried the team along with the strikers, Alex [Menchtchikov] and Victor [Nikolayev].”
As a junior, Victor Nikolayev was one of the most experienced players on the team. He had one assist and scored three goals, and according to his teammates, he was one of the best players on the team this season.
“I had a good season, but I just want to give a shout-out to my defense because they didn’t let up a single goal,” Nikolayev said.
One of the Scots’ team captains and leading players on defense was Nicholas Fromm. He used his role to motivate his team throughout the season during practice and warmups, which set the tone of every game.
“I think the captain role has taught me or shown me that I need to be a leader of the team,” Fromm said. “We have an amazing team and amazing players, and we all work together.”
As the first half of the game nearly came to an end, the Dons once again almost scored a goal. As all the players started to crowd the area in front of the goal, the Aragon forward saw an opening and kicked the ball directly in the middle of the goal. However, Foster made a save to keep the shut-out alive.
“It’s a huge pressure on me because if something goes wrong, then I’m sort of at fault, but it felt amazing to pull it off,” Foster said.
With both teams scoreless, each was eager to take the critical lead. Finally, after numerous possessions and failed attempts, in the 56th minute, freshman Calvin Wooll scored a goal securing the lead for his team.
“That was my first goal all season, and for it to be the final goal this season for a game-winning shot, I think it feels amazing. I don’t know if words can describe it, but I feel great now,” Wooll said.
After the win, Freeman said that the biggest reason for their success wasn’t only the skill of his players, but the level they were at competitively and the commitment that they had that pushed them to “outwork” every other team.
“I’ve just never seen a group of players who like being around each other more,” Freeman said. “I would say that we were the best team, but even out of the four years [I’ve coached at Carlmont], this is one for sure I’m always going to remember.”
As a Carlmont alumnus and athlete who played soccer on the varsity team for 3 ½ years, coaching was his way of giving back to the school and inspiring a new generation of athletes.
“I don’t get to play anymore; I get to play through them,” Freeman said.
Reflecting on the season, Freeman and his players believed that another big part of their success was the way they got along as a team and connected with each other.
“As a team, we had good chemistry and we enjoyed each other’s presence. I mean that turned out on the field,” Nikolayev said.
As for the future, Freeman looks forward to continuing to inspire new players and help give them the same experiences he had when he played for Carlmont.
“The fun thing about winning the league is that next year, we get to run it back and try to defend the title. Also, next year, it’s a whole new group of guys,” Freeman said. “That’s kind of the fun thing about high school; it’s that it’s always new, there’s always something different, and I’m just excited to see what happens.”
