In the second leg of the doubleheader, the boys’ soccer team faced off against the Camden Patriots. Before the game, star goalie Roland Bentley ‘25 and other members of the team watched the girls blowout victory over the Tommies. Bentley left the game feeling inspired. “[The game] shouldn’t be too bad, [we’ve got] a good group of guys, had a couple good practices before this, and now going to this game, seeing the girls have done an amazing job, [being] 12 up before [the] second half. Hopefully you can put on something similar.”
The Bears started off similarly, putting up pressure and keeping the Patriots defense on their toes. Agustin Catoggio ‘25 had two early chances as the Bears sustained their pressure. A corner kick by Oliver Brown ‘27 led to an early goal by Joe Melloh ‘25. Back-to-back corner kicks a minute later by Moises Huerta ‘27 resulted in a missed chance, but the Bears scored a minute later with a 30-yard kick by Charlie Silvestri ‘25.
Brown put the Bears’ third goal past the goalie, which was followed by more offensive pressure for the Bears and his second goal. After the fourth goal, Bentley was subbed out for Sam Morris ‘29. The game continued in a defensive battle, with the Bears creating consistent pressure but being unable to put anything in the back of the goal due to some excellent saves by the goalie Bayron Lopez.
In the second half, the Bears continued to apply pressure, with Landon Bell ‘26 barely missing a chance and constant offsides calls. Bell capitalized on a defensive error and made the score 5-0 Bears. Bell followed that up a few minutes later by placing a beautiful kick past Lopez for his second goal of the night. Following Bell’s second goal, Morris was substituted for John Heinmiller ‘27.
A few minutes later, Maxwell Friedell ‘28 put one in the back of the net with a nice assist from Bergen Levine ‘27. The Patriots continued to swarm the ball, often having two or three defenders trying to guard the Bears’ pass lanes. The game continued on as the Bears continued to press, with Levine breaking past Lopez’s wall to score the eighth goal of the night. Francesco Guala ‘25 added to the blowout victory with 7:30 to go.
Head coach Tamba Johnson said the game, which ended 9-0, went “as expected, the guys played well, got in and out, not too many injuries. We’re the #1 seed for a reason, we played like it.” Kristian Baker ‘25 added, “we took care of business…one [win] down, five to go.”
Now, the team pivots to their next game, on Tuesday against DeLaSalle. “[We’re going to] focus on DeLaSalle. Things they do well, they’re a good team, a good tradition, so it’s gonna be a tough game. So just working on what we can control, which is the things that we do, playing a little bit quicker, playing a little bit more discipline,” Johnson said.
