Well, the soccer season for Jesuit has come to an end. After three wins over Arlington Bowie, Denton Guyer, and Boyd, the team unfortunately loss against El Paso Eastlake. However, I’ll save that for later, I want to cover the good and wholesome stuff first. Now let’s get into the games!
Bi-District Round: vs Arlington Bowie
This game was a battle of defenses right up until the very end. The game went into a shootout of penalty kicks for both teams. There were scoreless halves for both teams. Jesuit’s typically strong offense could not manage to muster anything against an elite Arlington Bowie defense. On the other hand, the Arlington Bowie’s explosive offense couldn’t score due to the Rangers’ incredible defense. Suddenly, the final whistle was blown and the game was still scoreless. This lead to a tense shootout between the two teams. Jesuit who came through with the win, as Benton Bacile ’21 buried the final goal for the Rangers. This sent them to the next round of the playoffs, a showdown with Denton Guyer.
Area Round: vs Denton Guyer
In the next round, the victorious Rangers headed out to face Denton Guyer at The Colony HS. In the first half of this game, it looked like it would be the same story as the previous game against Arlington Bowie, as neither team could get next to anything going as the defense for Jesuit shined again for the second straight game. However, Denton Guyer’s defense was rather excellent themselves, as the Jesuit offense couldn’t get anything going against them in the first half. However, in the second half, the game got its first score as Kyle Visintainer ’21 nailed a shot off an assist from Henry Gilker ’21. And during the rest of the half, the Jesuit defense held strong, and the Rangers walked away with a 1-0 win and headed on to the next round of the postseason, a spot in the UIL State Championship Tournament. That sounds important, right?
Region II Quarterfinal: at McKinney Boyd
In the Region II quarterfinal in the UIL State Championship Tournament, Jesuit faced a familiar foe: McKinney Boyd. And it was essentially the same story as the Arlington Bowie game, as neither of the teams could get anything going in regular time and due to the excellent defensive efforts being put on by both sides, Jesuit participated in its second shootout of the playoffs. And just like the Arlington Bowie game, Jesuit came away with a win off a game-winner, as this time it was Sullivan Scott ’21 who buried the game-winning goal and was subsequently mobbed by his teammates, and he also sent Jesuit to the Region II semifinal in a hyped-up duel with El Paso Eastlake.
Region II Semifinal: vs El Paso Eastlake
This game was undoubtedly Jesuit’s toughest test this season, as they drove out to San Angelo, Texas to take on El Paso Eastlake, one of the top teams in the state, at San Angelo ISD Stadium. In the first half, Jesuit rather quickly fell into a 2-0 hole, as two shots from El Paso’s Gio Mora and Gustavo Chino Muela gave them the lead heading into halftime. In the second half, El Paso scored again in the 58th minute, this time coming courtesy of Jordan Widner, as Jesuit went behind 3-0. A goal from Benton Bacile ’21 gave Jesuit some of the momentum, but it became clear that El Paso Eastlake was simply the better team and they scored another goal in the 76th minute to cap off the 4-1 win, and Jesuit was eliminated from the playoffs with the loss. Regardless, it was a fantastic season and they’ll be looking to build off this huge success next season.
That’s all for this piece, but stay tuned to The Roundup for more Jesuit soccer and sports news!
