“Bending It Like Beckham”: Boys’ Varsity Soccer Recap Their Season of Success
A look back at the record-breaking season that turn the team into local superstars.
The team is all smiles in a match against Chattahoochee.
For the first time since 1986, the United States national team is out of the FIFA World Cup.
For the first time in its six-year history, the boys’ varsity soccer team made it to the state championship, capping a record-breaking season with a record of 19-2-0 to an end.
On Saturday in a match that went into overtime, the Bears suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to a very physical Chattahoochee in the state championship at McEachern High School in Powder Springs.
The Chattahoochee team is now back-to-back state champs for the very first time.
This loss was Cambridge’ second of the season, as the team won nearly every game in both the regular season and playoffs. The sole exception was the 4-3 loss to Alpharetta in a match decided by penalty kicks.
Senior and midfielder Jarvin Ramirez said the Hooch has been a strong opponent since the start of the playoffs and not only during the tournament game.
“A tough, hard-working, and very talented team,” Ramirez said of Chattahoochee. “They knew the playoffs, they knew the grind, and they knew what it took to get there.”
While this loss may be heart-wrenching to many members of the team, the season as a whole has been one that will be remembered for years to come.
Since the first freshly-inflated ball was kicked onto the field, the Bears have been a mighty powerhouse this season.
“The dynamic of this team has been great since the day of the first game,” said Men’s Varsity Soccer Head Coach Bryan Wallace, referring to a scrimmage against Forsyth Central.
Opponent after opponent, the team faced them all with might, handily beating such teams as Centennial 3-0, Providence 3-0, Northview 5-0, and Lambert 4-0.
As their win record just kept getting higher, the players gradually realized their goal of winning region could become a reality,
“Every team goes in thinking they’ll win each game, but we really thought we were going to win,” said Wallace, who was recently named region coach of the year for the first time.
The Bears did, however, face some tough situations on their path to the state championship.
One of those was during the previously mentioned Alpharetta game, where goalkeeper Nic Sides, a junior, was given a red card for tackling an opposing player.
To make matters worse, after Sides was sidelined and replaced by backup goalkeeper Mitch Hardgrove, a junior, Hargrove ended the game with a knee injury.
“That game was probably the toughest obstacle we had to overcome as a team,” said Ramirez.
Nevertheless, the team persisted through these developments during the regular season and marched onward to become region 6-AAAAAA champs.
“If you can figure out how to beat us, then you deserve to win,” said Wallace.
In a 3-1 match that ended the Hooch’s three-year reign as 6-AAAAAA region champs — 33-0 in region games since 2015 — the Bears came out on top to be named region champs for the first time.
“We felt pretty confident going in, so we were more than happy with the results,” said Sides.
As a result of that win, the team would soon be ranked number two in the country and number one in the state.
That national rank would soon change to number one, however, as the team decisively won all of the three-game, single elimination playoff matches. These matches were Allatoona 8-2, Greenbrier 5-0, and Gainesville 3-0.
Ramirez said that before going into the region game, half of the team members dyed their hair blonde to celebrate the achievement.
He said it shows just how comfortable the team is with one another, on and off the field, and it also shows just how strong their bond truly is.
“The bond that we have created as a team has been crucial to our success and it has also made us stronger as a team,” said Ramirez. “You can break one pencil so easily with your hands, but a bunch pencils put together is just nearly impossible to break.”
“I think that reflects our team very well,” he said.
Wallace partly attributes the team’s success to this bond between the players.
Wallace said the success has also been a result of the team’s community service, in the form of their annual Cross Keys High School Community Service Day.
Wallace, a former soccer coach for Cross Keys, said the event builds character that can be shown on and off the field.
Wallace also said their success can be traced to the team’s extensive focus of passing skills, which Wallace argues is something many high school teams lack.
“A lot of high school teams just pass the ball around like its nothing, but we’re different,” said Wallace. “We make sure that we’re passing the ball both correctly and carefully.”
Another setback on the way to state was forward John Crawley’s red card during the Gainesville game. Crawley, a senior, was not allowed to return to that game and was also suspended from the following game, which just so happened to be the state championship.
Wallace said that while this dominant class of seniors can never be replaced, he does believe the current crop of juniors, such as region player of the year defense Ethan Rose, can lead the team next season.
He also believes this will give other talented players, such as Midfielder Omar Dhrif and Forward Jabar Obeid, more equal playing time in future games, as Wallace said this has been a constant problem for such a successful team. Both players are juniors.
Speaking of Wallace, Ramirez said he will never forget how much of a role model Wallace has been to the whole team.
“Wallace has been an amazing coach and mentor for all of us these past seasons,” said Ramirez. “He has helped us in many ways, on and off the field, through school, and sometimes emotional support.”
“I would say he’s like a second dad for many of us,” he said.
The Bears have come a long way since their beginnings in the 2012-2013 season, which they ended with a 1-15 record.
While the U.S may be out of the FIFA World Cup to the shock of grieving fans around the school, many can feel safe knowing the boys’ varsity soccer team were able to at least make to state.
Jimenez is a senior and a fourth-year reporter. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for The Bear Witness for the first semester. Jimenez previously served...
