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PHOTO Danielle Zawlocki

Freshman Jake Korzenowski runs in to score a goal. Fenton played Holly Monday night and won.

Watching the ball hit the back of the net, senior Luke Dillingham cheers, realizing just how far they had come. Last year’s boys varsity soccer team ended the season with an 18-3-2 record, making it to the State Semi-Finals, which was one of their best seasons. They only had 11 of 22 returning members this year.

“We kind of had to change our expectations because we did really well last year,” Dillingham said. “We can not just go in and expect to do super well without putting in work, especially with a bunch of people we haven’t really played with so far. There are sometimes problems with working together well with new people who you don’t really know.”

Coming into this year, the varsity soccer team lost 12 seniors, which transferred the responsibility from graduates to current seniors, and opened spots for new members to fill the shoes that were left behind from last season.

“We have the responsibility because were seen as the leaders of the team,” Dillingham said. “Last year, there were a lot of really talented seniors, so it was kind of hard to fill the gaps.”

Along with the adopted obligations, the seniors each hold the position of captain.

“We have our brothership program,” senior Tristan Pryzbylowicz said. “Every year is about the seniors, everyone kind of looks up to the them, and we are basically just captains for the rest of the team.”

The captains this year hope to make a good environment for the team. They are mainly focusing on making sure this year’s and next year’s group can be as try and live up to the one before them.

Boys varsity soccer coach, Matt Sullivan Sr., saw last season’s team adopt the same mentality this team will most likely try to recreate.

“We kept getting tighter and tighter as a group,” Sullivan said. “The boys kept having more and more fun together. I think our seniors were great all year, but as the year went on I really saw them emphasize brothership and being together as a team, more than just winning.”

The bond between the team does not always just stay on the field though, they also have team bonding activities. Other than soccer, they have team dinners and team sleepovers to bond beyond their sport.

“They started spending a lot more time together off the field,” Sullivan said. “Our program is just all about getting the guys to play hard for each other. You know it is when our team finds that chemistry, that is when we really click and start to be successful. Sometimes it takes some teams longer than others to find that chemistry and last year’s team found it quickly. They knew how much fun it was last year, so the seniors this year wanted to duplicate that and leave their same mark on the program as last seniors did. It just comes from being really unselfish.”

When it came down to them talking about the best game of last season, Dillingham and Sullivan Sr. agreed on one game; the win against Linden in the district finals.

“When we beat Linden in the district finals in penalty kicks,” Dillingham said. “it was just really exciting because when the last one went in, everyone was just super excited, because we finally won”.

This season’s varsity Soccer team strives to improve, compared to last year’s team. Their next game is on Oct. 2 against Flushing High School at home.