Despite losing to Ladue 3-0 last year, the boys soccer team persevered and defeated the Rams 1-0 this season. The game took place on Sept. 11 and the boys have won 4 out of their 6 games so far.
After the loss last year, head coach Thomas Wade had many things for the players to work on in practice to prepare for the game.
“This year, we talked more about our body language, our attitude, [and] our mindset from the time that we step on the pitch. We also scouted this team pretty heavily and tried to understand their system. Then we talked about defining and clarifying our system the way we want to play with the level of energy and competitiveness that we want to bring to the game for a full 80 minutes. We understood what they were trying to do in terms of their game plan. We wanted to negate that as much as possible, but then execute our game plan, and the boys did it brilliantly,” Wade said.
During the first half of the game, neither Ladue nor Summit scored a goal. Wade said that he didn’t have to do much to relieve the pressure that the team could’ve been feeling.
“I didn’t have to keep [the players] morale up. As the game wore on, they started to build that belief that they have the potential to [compete] with one of the best teams in the area. I think they saw that they are every bit as good as [them] and [that they] can be one of the top ranked teams as well,” Wade said.
Senior captain Kaden Dinges said that he and his teammates believed in themselves instead of falling to the pressure from the first half.
“We know we’re a good enough team to be able to win any game so [when] it’s still 0-0, we [know that we] can score in the second half,” Dinges said.
During the second half, senior AJ Tuohy did just that and scored the game winning goal for the Falcons. Tuohy said that the goal was a team effort between lots of players.
“[The goal] was on a long throw [from senior William] Sanders and [senior] Jake [Curran] flicked it, [senior Cade] Polsak flicked it, and it came right in front of me. There was a defender in the way, [so] I just wrapped my leg around him [and] shot it,” Tuohy said.
Tuohy believes that head balls were a strong part of their game and that they helped score the goal in the second half.
“We were winning head balls in the air a lot. I think that’s [something] we’ve been really good at and we were moving the ball well too. [Ladue was] wearing down in the second half,” Tuohy said.
Wade also saw a lot of other good things during the game in addition to headballs.
“[The] boys fought for every ball. We talk about [taking] pride in every pass, every sprint, every tackle, every shot, and the boys executed. We’ve been trying to score on set pieces and our long throw-ins. Tuohy had the lone goal [of the] match doing just that, which is something that we’ve been working on in training so it’s good to see it carry into the game and make a difference,” Wade said.
Senior captain Jack Steele believes that communication is also another thing that brought them to success.
(Madison Stevens)
“On the field I do what I can to communicate with the team and keep everyone mentally in the game. I feel like whether it is [Dinges], me, or anyone on the team, our communication helps us mark well and shut down the other team’s attack,” Steele said.
Along with communication, Steele also thinks that the team’s positive mentality helped them win the game.
“This year the team morale and energy is completely different [from last year]. We are confident in who we are and what we can do and we brought that onto the field against Ladue and came out on top,” Steele said.
Although things have been going well this season, Wade also has to think about the success of the team next season. This year there are only four juniors on the varsity team, so Wade has to prepare them for when all this year’s seniors leave.
“We are trying to make sure that [the juniors] understand their role in the team and then giving them the opportunities so that they can take an even bigger role next year. [We want to build] on the success they’re going to hopefully experience this year, and [have them] share that with the younger guys as they come up,” Wade said.
