EASTHAMPTON, Mass. – The Easthampton High School boys soccer team won the division four state championship title last year and it’s made them a big target for every opponent they face as they try to repeat.
What You Need To Know
- The Easthampton High School boys soccer team is looking to repeat as division four state champions
- They graduated four seniors from the championship team, and although they returned a lot of players, the loss was significant
- With just a few games left in the regular season, Easthampton is hoping to run the table during the final stretch of the year.
- Easthampton will host their senior night game on Sunday
“It’s been kind of hard, because everyone wants to come to us,” team captain Matthew Bacis said. “To beat us because we are the state champs so everyone is always trying to punch down on us hard to beat us.”
The Eagles’ record is similar to what it was this time last year. They graduated four seniors from the championship team, and although they returned a lot of players, the loss was significant.
“We lost a lot of raw talent that we had last year,” Ethan Marowitz, another one of the team’s captains, said. “We had two of our center midfielders go to Westfield State. They’re obviously very good soccer players and we’ve had to make up for that loss, and also our striker. So we’ve had a tough time scoring goals but we ‘re still winning games just closer games than we had last year.’
Head coach Andrew Lawrence has his team working on possession drills to help improve their communication and increase their scoring chances.
“The biggest thing this year is we’ve been trying to talk about being a family,” Lawrence said. “We started off the year not communicating a lot and just kicking and running. So we’re trying to play the field, so we’re trying to get that communication. It’s letting your teammates know that you have their back and we’re calling for the ball and we can actually spread the field and move the ball better.”
With just a few games left in the regular season, Easthampton is hoping to run the table during the final stretch.
Team captain Mateo Navarro said despite the challenges they’ve faced this year, the team’s goal is the same as last year and he believes they have what it takes to pull it off.
“Just keep winning, keep winning, keep winning,” Navarro said. “We really wanna go back to back like I mentioned before and just talking, hard defense, and everyone working hard. At the end of the day, it’s all about how hard we work because we are the ones who can decide how far we wanna go depending on how hard we want to work.”
Easthampton will host their senior night game on Sunday. It’s their regular season finale and they’re hoping it will be a nice lead in for another deep playoff run.
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