On the evening of Friday, November 10th, the pressure was high for the Viking Boys Soccer team as they faced off against Episcopal High School during their official kick-off to the soccer season. At the Viking Stadium, students watched the Junior Varsity (JV) team beat the Episcopal Knights 8-0, and the Varsity team tied with the Knights 1-1. In the 22-23 season, JV won against Episcopal 1-0, and Varsity lost 1-0. Both teams significantly improved since the previous year, especially playing the defending Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) State Champions.
The JV game kicked off at 4:30 pm with the starting lineup as follows: Felipe Costa, Gregor Milne, Pedro Sobral, Mohanned Hamad, Justin Park, Diego Valencia, Rafael Bursztyn, Mark Tripulskyi, Hadrien Le Gallais, Jay Jung and Donni Hu. With a quick first goal from Mohanned Hamad, he had the Vikings in the lead and matched their score from last year. For the remainder of the half, Rafael Bursztyn, Jay Jung, and Justin Park led the Vikings into halftime with a score of 4-0. The second half commenced, and the Vikings took off with a hitch, scoring four more goals by Mohanned Hamad, Raul Gonzalez, and two by Akaash Jhingran. The Viking Boys’ JV team beat Episcopal again, ending with a final score of 8-0. “I feel like the team’s performance was great, it was our first game of the season, and we all performed well,” said sophomore Raul Gonzalez, one of the second-half scorers. “We are looking forward to the season, and to keep winning, and to stay on top of our game.”
After a JV win, the Varsity team lined up to start warming up for their kick-off time at 6:30 pm. The captains of the team are Adrian Mathisen and Samuel Lozano, two of the team’s veterans. The starting line-up for the Vikings goes as follows: Lucas Lopez, Kynan Burgess, Yernar Mahmay, Breno Pereira, Richie Leppington Bravo, Samuel Lozano, Adrian Mathisen, Lucas Fear, Julian Ledesma, Ross Nicoll, and Dindu Chukwumaeze. With the temperature at 53 degrees Fahrenheit, a tough battle in the cold weather didn’t stop the Vikings. They pushed through even when Episcopal scored during the first half of the game, leaving the score 1-0 at half-time. During the second half, they came in stronger, and striker Lucas Fear scored a phenomenal goal to bring the game to a tie. The Vikings celebrated with the whole team, running to the stands.
This would be a great start to the 23-24 soccer season, considering they already have nine total goals across both teams and impeccable performances from all players. The Vikings have always been gifted in soccer, and these first games prove it once more/ With an additional win by the Viking girl’s soccer team on November 9th, and since then another win by the Vikings against John Cooper, scoring 5-0 and 1-0. This is going to be a great season for Viking Soccer. Go Vikings!
