Gallery • 12 Photos

By Abby Doughty

With the ball coming towards his head junior Jake Ashford looks directly to block it from an Aquinas player during the sub-state game on Tuesday Oct. 31.

Boys soccer lost in the quarterfinals to St. Thomas Aquinas 1-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

Aquinas’s only goal, and the only goal of the entire game was scored with 16 minutes left in the first half.

According to head coach Arlan Vomhof, the team played better in the second half than the first.

“We started out with some momentum in the first half and then kind of lost that momentum,” Vomhof said. “In the second half we came out and played a lot better.”

In past games the Jags lost to Aquinas in overtime, but sophomore Ian Carroll and the team had a positive attitude on the outlook of the game.

“We were feeling confident going up against Aquinas,” Carroll said. “We just really wanted to win this game super bad.”

In the second half, senior Carter Lawson got a red card, which caused the team to be one player down for the rest of the game. According to Vomhof, that made a “huge difference” on the team.

“You have to make changes,” Vomhof said. “We went with less offense for a little bit and then we took a challenge and went with less defense to try and create an offense.”

Taking the risk of playing less defense and more offense was something Vomhof said he was willing to take.

“If we don’t do something and risk something, we’re gonna lose anyway. We could lose by one point or we could lose by four points, it doesn’t matter,” Vomhof said. “So, we opted to move [senior Brad] Teasley up to try and get some offence going.”

According to Carroll it was “heartbreaking” to see the season end and all the seniors leaving without going to state. Vomhof agreed with Carroll and said that the season ending was a “bummer” but they had a great season.

“We graduated a huge class last year, so this team has done a phenomenal job this year. We’ve hit some huge milestones with our 200 wins and our 1,000th goal,” Vomhof said. “For them to be a part of that and have a record this season that no one really ever expected them to have, they’ve accomplished a lot, and I’m proud of them.”

Carroll said he was very happy with how the season ended.

“We did fantastic this whole season,” Carroll said. “A record of 13-5 on the season is one of the best we’ve had in a long time.”