As the Fall sports season continues, the boys Varsity soccer team held their annual Under the Lights Senior Night game on Thursday, September 17^th. I sat down with Coach Allen Turton to find out some game highlights and to see how the boys played together to come out winners.

After the heartwarming Senior Night ceremony, the boys took the field facing the Tonawanda Warriors. Coach Turton stated that he thought it would be a pretty tough game for them. Last year, the boys had tied with Tonawanda for the championship game in their division, so this game had a lot of meaning to them. “I know their coach and I know his style and they have a pretty physical style of play,” Turton says anxiously while talking about one of their top competitors. He was very confident that his boys would come out on top and not walk away with a loss.

Typically the fan attendance isn’t too high, but the team was very excited when they saw how many people came to cheer them on. They put on a great performance for the fans throughout the entire game. Coach Turton says that during the first half they made a lot of good passes, but the boys didn’t get as many shots on net as he had hoped. Not letting themselves get discouraged, the boys had ended at half time with high hopes to end the night with a victory.

”We definitely had our work cut out for us in the second half,” Turton says. “We focused on communication and hustle and I think that those things worked in our favor in the second half,” Coach says confidently as he talks about the second half of the game.

Turton says that even though they came out on top, they can take some weaknesses from this game to improve on their skills. One thing in particular is to increase their shooting percentage. Coach says, “It’s easier said than done, but that’s something that can improve our record majorly.”

Coach Turton says that Senior, Johnny Bobeck, was having an outstanding game, which only helped improve the attitudes in his teammates. “He made a critical penalty kick, which kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” Turton added, proudly.

One thing that Coach Turton was very pleased with was the all of his seniors started and got a good amount of playing time. He wanted each and every one of them to get the opportunity to showcase their talents and show everything they had learned all season. Coach also said, “It was nice to get a shutout. Those are fun and rare.” Coach Turton also shares how confident he is that his team will receive a championship title this year. They came very close last year, but couldn’t quite claim it. “We have some more matches coming up that we can win. Not easy, but with confidence,” Turton explains. We wish the boys the best of luck for the duration of the season as they are now on the road to sectionals!