As some of you may know, Jesuit’s annual Meinstser soccer tournament is named after Hank Meinstser. Coach Meinstser founded the Jesuit soccer program in 1960. He served as coach for the varsity team for 20 years and, after retiring in 1982, was inducted into the North Texas Hall of Fame in 1990.
After his retirement, Jesuit created a yearly tournament to honor the coach who gave Jesuit its winning traditions and morals. The Meinstser tournament is graced today by some of the best footballers in the metroplex and from across the whole state of Texas.
The beginning of the New Year always brings with it the beginning of Jesuit’s soccer season. This year,
Jesuit’s first varsity tournament was the Meinstser. The team began their season with high hopes from their returning seniors and juniors and six new additions from the sophomore class. With a relatively young defense and attack, the team would need to work hard during Christmas practices and scrimmages to give head coach Charlie DeLong a chance to make his selections.
The traditional opening game against BL came on January 12, 2012, during school, at 2:00 PM. Jesuit came into the game with high expectations after the last few meetings between the two schools had resulted in comfortable wins for Jesuit.
This year was almost an exact replica of the game last year. Jesuit went into half with a 2-0 lead over Lynch thanks to goals from Dalton Eudy ’12. By scoring four goals in the second half (courtesy of Sean Badger ’14, Guy Harris ’14, Juan Torres ’14, and Eudy again), Jesuit matched last year’s score of 5-0 in favor of the home team.
After winning their first game easily, Jesuit came into the second game against North Mesquite on January 13 with confidence. After going down 1-0 in the first 15 minutes, Jesuit equalized through a goal from Chris Wengierski ’14 and went ahead after a great corner from Eudy set up senior Tanner Coffin for a beautiful header.
Jesuit went into half with a 2-1 lead over North Mesquite. The second half brought dominance for North Mesquite, as they clawed their way back against the Rangers. About halfway through the second half Dalton Eudy went down with a broken foot.
During the last 25 minutes, Jesuit dug in its heels defensively, holding out long enough to advance to overtime.
Meinstser rules state that teams tied after two periods of 35 minutes will enter a 7 ½ minute period of sudden death. About 3 minutes into the game Zack Stavrou ’14 chipped a through-ball over Mesquite’s defense for Brandon Ozier ’14 to run on to. After Ozier was fouled, Josh Dillon ’12 lined up to take the free–kick from the edge of the box.
Amidst the confusion and chaos of Mesquite’s wall, attempting to block the kick, Dillon saw an opportunity to score. The ball curled into the goal and both Jesuit’s bench and the players piled onto Josh while the parents and Rugby team cheered from the stands. In an exciting back and forth game, Jesuit won 3-2 and advanced to the finals.
The Rangers came into the final an undermanned and injured team. With four players suspended, one 
away on a family trip, and three injured, DeLong had 13 field players and two goalies to choose from.
Marcus came into the game ranked 5th in the state and Jesuit ranked 16th. The Rangers knew they would need to work as hard as ever as the undermanned underdogs to beat Marcus, especially after the embarrassment they suffered at the championship last year, when they lost 3-0 to Marcus.
The first half Jesuit and Marcus were almost even with nearly equal shots and corners. Going into the break even, Jesuit suffered another injury, this time to Chris Wengierski, who suffered a game ending ankle injury. The second half was more of the same back-and-forth soccer that the Jesuit vs Marcus matchup usually brings, until senior Ryan Tabet went down with an ankle injury. After two periods of play, the game was still tied.
The teams would have to be separated and the winner decided through a nerve-racking challenge – dribble ups. Five players and a goalie from each team were selected to compete in these shootouts. Jesuit saw John Feist ’13, Josh Dillon ’12, Raul Caballero ’12, Juan Torres ’14, Chris Mathis ’14, and Tanner Coffin ’12 rise to the challenge.
After Feist saved 3 attempts from Marcus shooters and Dillon and Caballero chipped in goals, Chris Mathis rose to the occasion, putting a goal past the Marcus goalkeeper to win the 2012 Jesuit Meinstser Tournament. The undermanned and underrated Jesuit Rangers had pulled off the unlikely in beating the higher ranked Marcus Marauder.
Jesuit won their 13th Meinstser Championship and is currently ranked above Marcus both in Texas as well as the nation. Currently ranked 12th nationally and 7th in the state of Texas, the Rangers have high hopes for their season. But the team is more concerned with reaching their peak by playoff time: “It doesn’t matter where you are at the beginning of the season,” said coach DeLong. “It counts where you are at the end.” Come see your Jesuit Ranger Soccer team open divisional play on January 31, 2012, at home to the WT White Longhorns at 7:00 PM.
