Turnaround is the perfect word to describe the Chapel Hill men’s soccer team’s season.
After losing a winnable game to Charlotte Catholic on August 26, dropping the Tigers to 1-2-1, a change was deeply needed.
And a change did indeed come. After dropping the game against Charlotte Catholic, the Tigers went on to win 12 of their next 15 games to cap off the regular season.
“We changed our formation, and that made us really tough to beat,” head coach Jason Curtis said.
During this nonstop success, the Tigers had some notable victories. On September 14, the Tigers played and beat a strong Durham Academy team. “We were extremely determined to win, and our playing showed that,” senior captain defender Andy Lee said.
On October 10, the Tigers went to Durham to play the Jordan Falcons, a team the Tigers have struggled to find success against in the past. However, the Tigers went forward and never looked back. During the match, seniors Adam Trusky and Will Casey secured two goals each in a 4-2 win over the Falcons.
On October 24, the East Chapel Hill Wildcats came to Ron Benson Field to play the Tigers for a mutual regular season finale, spectators knew it was going to be, well, a catfight. The winner of the game would claim the DAC-VII 4A Conference.
The game was pivotal, to say the least: lose, and the Tigers would enter the playoffs with no momentum, morale down, and a worse seed in the playoff bracket. Win, and the conference and bragging rights belonged to Chapel Hill.
The teams drew 1-1 when they played against each other earlier that month, so the stakes were high.
The first half wasn’t easy for either team, and while both teams scored once, spectators knew it was going to be a battle. The Tigers came into the second half looking strong and scored three more times to beat the Wildcats 4-1. Juniors Rafael Canoutas Nadel and Ian Weiskott and seniors Matthew Bland and Jesse Lowinger all scored to secure the victory.
Lowinger, enjoying this win against the Wildcats, described it as “the most memorable part of the season.”
Chapel Hill’s hot streak continued into the playoffs. After receiving the sixth seed in the East 4A bracket, the Tigers opened up their playoffs by crushing D.H. Conley High School 8-0, but the dominance didn’t stop there. The Tigers beat Ashley High School 3-0 and upset Hoggard High School 1-0.
Battling for the 4A East regional final, the Tigers now faced their toughest opponent yet—Apex Friendship, a team they had lost to earlier in the season 4-1.
The Tigers got off to a hot start as senior captain defender Andy Lee scored the first goal. But the unbearable offense of Apex Friendship was just too much for the Tigers, as the Patriots ended up finding the back of the net two more times in the first half.
All good things come to an end, and the Tigers lost to the Patriots 2-1.
Seven seniors were selected to the DAC-VII 4A Conference: Casey, Trusky, Lee, Matt Bland, Gabe Waterhouse, Dylan Barnhouse and Lowinger.
To add on to a great season, Casey—who recorded nine goals on the season—was selected as the DAC-VII 4A Conference player of the year. Casey was also selected to the North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association all-state team along with Trusky.
The Tigers had a substantial number of seniors this year, eighteen in fact.
“They had a unique chemistry and it’s really going to be tough, losing that many starters,” Curtis said.
Though the outcome of the match against Apex Friendship wasn’t what Chapel Hill wanted, Lee learned a lot from his final season at Chapel Hill.
“I think this season has taught all of our team’s members a valuable lesson: success cannot come without putting in the work. We did not have our success by chance. It came from a shift in our collective attitudes to be more focused and determined to win,“ he said.
