On Thursday, the boys soccer team travelled to Hope Christian to take on the only team in the district with a chance of upsetting them on the way to the title. The two teams had played a low-key game at the Academy that was punctuated by a delay for lightening, rain, and wind, with the boys earning a comfortable 3-0 win.

In the eight years of the Coach Kolek era, the team has never played at Hope, so while it was just a short trip up Wyoming, it was heading into new territory.

The game started with Hope playing a physical style. The Hope players had worked themselves into an aggressive mindset. Academy had the first good shot, but it was Hope that scored first thirteen minutes in. A long ball off a dead ball was met at the far post and headed back across the goal for an easy header finish. The Hope players redoubled their physicality with the goal and there were several hard tackles. The Academy kept its composure and equalized six minutes later when Trevor Dean ‘20 threaded a pass to Lucas Jepsen ’19 at the top of the attack. Lucas controlled the ball and laid it off to Neven Zapatka ’22 who drove a low ball past the Hope keeper. The rest of the half would see many more fouls than scoring opportunities. Jackson Taylor ’19 and Aaron Hill ’19 were both roughly thrown to the ground. Trevor was run over from behind. The level of rough play was as bad as anything this writer had seen in eight years as a varsity coach. The half ended 1-1.

While the second half started in much the same way, the Academy players followed Coach Kolek’s exhortation to “control the controlables” and to “remain unaffected” by the rough play. They had better possession and cleaner ideas. Just five minutes in, Lucas received a pass deep in the corner and played a driven lefty cross low into the box. It was knocked down by a Hope player’s arm. Hand ball. Aaron hit the resulting penalty kick so hard into the back of the goal that it ripped through the net. From there, Hope continued to compete but they struggled to mount an effective attack. Emotions continued to run high through the rest of the game. The referee’s called back an Aaron header goal and several dangerous shots either just missed or were well saved delaying an insurance score. With time running out, Jackson hit a low shot from distance that went right to Lucas who trapped it, turned and finished it into the bottom corner. The game ended minutes later, Academy 3-Hope 1.

Yannick Schlenzig ’19 would only record three saves on the day but the statistics belied his presence in the box, coming out to intercept several dangerous long, high crosses, clearing dangerous through balls, and connecting with the defense to restart the attack. It was his best game of the season and he was arguably the man of the match.

The boys varsity are now 12-4-1, continue to be undefeated in district play, and have two regular seasons game left.