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Schools

Thrilling Herndon Boys Soccer Season Comes to an End

'The Swarm' knocked out by Spartans after falling behind early

The Herndon Hornets (14-2-1) and West Springfield Spartans (14-1-3) met in the Northern Regional quarterfinal match in Burke Friday night. The game was stopped with more than 24 minutes left in the first half, leaving Herndon trailing 1-0, as Spartan Wais Ansary had scored from 25 yards out two minutes before the stoppage.

“As soon as I got the ball in space, I knew to hit it,” Ansary said, “If you have a touch like that you might as well hit it.

Play resumed after a 90 minute delay and the Hornets battled with fire in an attempt to even the match, but could not find the net and West Springfield would end Herndon’s dynamic, record setting season to become only the second team to defeat ‘The Swarm’ this year, 1-0. 

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Things started out rough for Herndon but became even worse after the restart. At least two Hornets received yellow cards and the keeper was given a red card when he touched the ball with his hands outside of the 18-yard-box during a miscommunication with one of his defensive men. Sophomore Kurt Meyers stepped into goal for the Hornets, who were forced to play a man down in the field for the majority of the match due to the infraction.

“We talked about being a man down and playing until the last second,” Herndon Coach Sean Lanigan said. “They outnumbered us at midfield and they had fresher legs. We didn’t do a decent job of dealing with the five in the back and just trying to lump balls into a five vs. two situation—you’re not going to be very successful doing that.”

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West Springfield picked its game up where it left off during the storm to control possession and speed of the competition. Patric Burns, Ansary and Jannik Eckenrode built a virtual wall at midfield to stop the Hornets from successfully lobbing air balls to Patrick McLaughlin and EK Korvah who stayed on the attack but came just short of scoring on four or five occasions.

“We just came out knowing we had to play our game and keep going,” Burns said. “We have great team work and great chemistry. We’re excited to go to the next round and keep going.”

The Spartan strategy worked as planned and Coach Andy Saffron said although it is tough to play a team you do not know well, his team managed to figure out how to expose the Hornets' weakness.

“After that first 15 minutes when we scored, the objective was to keep dictating the tempo from the center-mids,” Spartan Coach Andy Saffron said. “I think what’s unique about our team is that we had given up goals this season but our kids bounce right back, have a lot of fight in them and they just go out and compete.”

Heart and effort was not an issue against the Spartans. Timing and accuracy near midfield was the key to both winning and losing the game for each team. Ansary received a perfect pass and took two quick touches and launched it from 25 yards into the upper-right-90 to give West Springfield the lead with 27:38 still left in the first.

On the contrary, Herndon misfired several five- to 10-yard passes near center-mid, which led to Spartan turnovers and control of the game’s tempo. The Hornet defense stood stout but McLaughlin said the offensive rhythm was missing and he added that next year will be even better for Herndon.

“Every time we play in rain we are a touch off, just one little inch away and we should have got a goal tonight, The [rain] just speeds the ball up a bit,” McLaughlin said. “All I will say is ‘big things’ for next year. Me and EK will be coming back and it’s our last season of high school soccer and we’re going for it all.”

And so the record setting season comes to an end for Herndon. A handful of seniors will leave for college in the summer including Sam Eaddy and Raleigh McKenzie. But the majority of the team will return next year and Coach Lanigan believes it will be something very special.

“We have a very strong junior class and five or six very good sophomores coming through the system,” Lanigan said. “Next year’s team will be, I think, stronger than this year’s team and another regional contender.”

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