After Oct. 14th, the Greenwood boys soccer team ended their season with five wins, five losses, and two ties (5-5-2). The boys team lost many of its senior starters from last season when they earned a winning record of 12-1-1. This year, the team from Newport includes seniors William “Pate” Anderson and Evan Rice, junior Bradyn Diaz, sophomore Camden Barrick, and freshman Deion Marique.
The young team began with a couple of wins, but after they played Halifax for the first time, the team struggled to regain their winning streak. The team lost to Juniata and Susquenita and consistently had a few ties with Millersburg and Susquenita in the middle of their season.
Individually, by the end of the soccer season, Rice was in sixth place for scoring leaders. He had ten goals, four assists, and 24 points in all, which also put him in the top five for goals scored.
The Greenwood Soccer team made it to the first round of the playoffs but crucially fell to the Halifax Wildcats 6-0 to end their season. “We lost 13 seniors last year including 8 starters,” commented Rice, discussing the start of the season. “This meant that we were coming into this year significantly understaffed and inexperienced.” The team had to build more relationships with each other this year because they were starting off with only three of the starters they had from last season.
Unfortunately, goalkeeper Anderson suffered a rib injury early in the season, giving the team an even more difficult task. The boys’ coach replaced the injured player with Nathan Joya.
“We always went out and tried to make the most of the time we had out there,” commented Rice.
Luckily, next year the Greenwood-Newport soccer team will have more experience with the players they had this year. The team was still young and developing this year and can use their experience to help the team next season.
