As of these past few weeks, you may have noticed many student athletes missing from your afternoon classes. Oftentimes, they leave school early to take part in their sectional state tournaments. Especially busy  has been the boys soccer team, progressing through the first three rounds of their section’s, North 2 Group 1’s, state tournament, and finding themselves in the sectional final, which they will be playing Friday November 8th, at 2 pm. 

The 1-seed team has had relatively few hardships in these few first rounds, according to one of the team’s starting defensemen, junior Grantham Ghaemi. When asked about the first round game, he said “it was a joke” as can be confirmed by the 6-0 scoreline against Warren Tech. The second round, however, was a different story. With a clean sheet and only 1 goal to put them over the Hoboken side, the 1-0 scoreline was much closer than that of their first round win, but Glen Ridge still managed to clinch the W.

“We played badly,” said Grant, “and it was too close.” However, this marked the end of their difficulties for now as they recorded a clean 2-0 win over Dayton. “It was one of the best games we’ve played all year,” Grant said, and boy did it come at a convenient time. 

“Confident”. That was Grant’s one word answer when asked to describe how the team felt going into November. Under coach Austin Alvarado, they beat Technology on Friday, November 8 to win the North 2 Group 1 sectional finals. They played Walwick on Thursday, November 14, and won, setting this dynamic team on the path to the Group 1 State Championship Finals this Sunday against Bound Brook.

Come out and support the Boys Soccer team play Bound Brook for the Group 1 State Championship this Sunday, November 17 at Kean University at 3:00pm. Good luck!!