For 27 straight years, the soccer team won the State Prep Championship, but this year, the streak ended.

“No one could have ever predicted the result and to anyone who follows our program, it was clearly a disappointing one,” said senior and captain Nicolas Black.

In the Fall, the Varsity Soccer team had been left with a tough act to follow. From being undefeated and ranking first on a national level, the 2015 roster accomplished many feats. However, 20 of the seniors who played for the team moved on to college, leaving a fresh set of players as this year’s roster.

Despite that, for its first game, the soccer team blew out Beacon (NY), scoring seven goals to Beacon’s none. Then the Gray Bees went on to winning their next four games.

But, their streak soon ended when they lost to Berkshire (MA) by a one goal 2-1. However, the one loss still left hope for a possibility of holding the national championship at the end of the season.

The following game they won, but then the team tied Pennington.

The next two games after Pennington were wins, but they were followed by two consecutive ties and two loses back to back.

The hope of kissing the National Championship trophy was by then out of reach, but not the State Prep Championship.

The team’s record landed them on the State Prep A bracket. They won the following three games, one of which was the semifinal game for the State Championship against Peddie 3-0.  

At the final game, the team stood face to face with Pennington again. Both teams fought hard, but the Gray Bees lost the battle.

“We did fight! It’s not to say we just handed it over,” said Nicolas.

The  season ended with a record of ten wins, four losses, three ties.

However, despite the disappointing season, hope for a better one next year is alive in the hearts of all the returning players; even for the seniors.

“No one can change what happened and all the returning guys have to take this incident and use it as fire and motivation to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” said Nicolas.