The men’s soccer team got hot late in the 2022 season, winning five straight playoff games after a 5-7-5 regular season. The team advanced all the way to the Semistate round after wins against Perry Meridian, East Central and Carmel, all in overtime. The team fell in the Semistate game, losing 2-1 to Columbus North, but they are looking to see a different result in 2023
Last year’s team was relatively young, as Ayrton Graziano and Josh Wesseling are the two key losses that needed to be replaced going into this season. Both are now playing college soccer, at Wabash and Marion respectively, and Wesseling was the team’s second leading scorer.
Despite those losses, the team returns most of last year’s starting lineup and rotational players. Seniors Emmett Hern, Liam Fahey, Belachew Neal, Adrian Reveles and Landon Korous lead a deep, talented group of returning seniors. Junior Cal Kurzawa led the team in points a season ago, and classmate Jett Wallmeier returns as goalkeeper. The team voted Hern, Neal and Fahey as team captains, but with so much varsity leadership and experience, there is lots of leadership outside of those three. Fahey said, “It feels like there are more than just three captains. With so much leadership and varsity experience, it feels like everyone is a leader.”
In addition to the plethora of returning talent, the team brought in two key new faces to help their chances at a State Championship. Seniors Fynn Lahrsen and Ian Jackson joined the team for their final year, having never played a minute of high school soccer. Lahrsen and Jackson had previously declined to play for the Irish due to their commitments to their club teams. However, with some convincing, they agreed to play this year, and both have made a great impact already this season.
The team has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, as they hold a 4-3 record as of Sept. 6, with close losses to Hamilton Southeastern, Pike and North Central. However, lately things have been looking up, as the team won two straight games, including a rematch with Columbus North on Aug. 31. Against the Bulldogs, two quick goals by Kurzawa and Lahrsen in the first half proved to be all that the team needed to pull away for a 2-1 victory. The senior and junior forward tandem has provided much of the offense for the team thus far, with both Lahrsen and Kurzawa having 7 goals each. Holmes, Neal, Jackson and sophomore Quinn Bateman have been big point contributors as well.
The team will face one of its toughest matchups of the season on Sept. 7, when the Center Grove Trojans will visit The Hill for a 7:00 game.
