The Chapel Hill men’s soccer team captured the Big Eight conference title—its fifth in the last sixth years—finishing the regular season with a conference record of 13-1, the only loss coming to Northern Durham in the last match of the regular season.
The Tigers head into the postseason with an overall record of 17-4-1 and will play East Wake High School (9-8-1) at home on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the first round of the playoffs.
Head Coach Jason Curtis said he was impressed by the team’s development over the course of the season. With the loss of five all-conference and three all-state players from last year’s team, the Tigers had big shoes to fill.
“They became not necessarily confident, but more comfortable. We are still working on finishing. In the attacking third, we still have to be a little more aggressive and take our chances,” Curtis said.
The Tigers were anchored by a strong defensive line—two members of which are three-year varsity players—that conceded only five conference goals all season.
“We take pride in not letting other teams score. We know that our job is to make sure the other team does not score and give our attack the chance to win us the game by putting a goal in,” senior captain and center back Kalvin Matischak said.
After a waiting period of 18 months during which the Tigers’ home field was renovated, the season also saw the commemoration of the Ron Benson soccer field in mid-August.
Benson—still a fixture on the sidelines during soccer games as a volunteer assistant—was a longtime coach of the Tigers’ men’s and women’s soccer teams, as well as one of the founders of local Rainbow Soccer League. He led the women’s soccer team to a state championship in 2014.
“Ron Benson to the soccer program means just about everything. For him to still be around and still love the game so much, for us to be able to say the kids are playing at ‘Ron Benson field’ is unbelievable,” assistant coach Davis Boyle, who played two seasons of junior varsity soccer under Benson in the mid-1990s, said.
Junior right wing Arun Kirk echoed the importance of Benson to the Tigers’ soccer program, while adding that the new field has been great to play on.
“Benson Field has a really nice playing surface and allows us to practice where we play. The name ‘Benson Field’ and the presence of Coach Benson at practices and games helps us to keep in mind the traditions and history of Chapel Hill soccer,” junior right wing Arun Kirk said.
Though defense played a crucial role this season in the Tigers’ successful regular season, Curtis said it was an offensive flurry of goals by senior center forward Xavier Bell that was one of the highlights of the regular season. In the Tigers’ two matches against East Chapel Hill High School, Bell notched three goals, contributing a 3-0 victory at East on September 20 and a 3-2 victory on October 11 at home.
“The East games are always the biggest thing. Watching Xavier score two goals against them [in the first game] was pretty impressive,” Curtis said. “He had to totally change his role coming from center back to forward.”
Bell said he was ecstatic with his offensive output in the crucial conference matches.
“When I scored against East in the first game, I had an amazing rush. It felt so good to be able to put the team ahead so early in such a crucial game, not just for conference play, but for pride,” Bell said. “Scoring against East the second and third time had the exact same thrill. Knowing I had so many people in the stands and on the team cheering me on, I knew I had to produce.”
