On Friday, Sept. 20 the Gray Bees soccer team played St. Ignatius to battle for the #1 spot. The game finished 2-2 after both sides battled the game out for 80 minutes. The team left after convocation on Thursday to travel 8 hours on the bus to Cleveland, Ohio. They arrived at the hotel around 7 p.m. then went for a light jog to stretch their legs.

On game day, SBP got off to a bad start when they conceded the first 2 goals in the first half due to sloppy mistakes. They had most of the ball in the half but unfortunately couldn’t take their chances. The hopes of a 3rd Straight National Championship was nearly gone by half time.

The team went in at half time not happy with their first half performance and this was the first time that they found themselves down in a game. Before the team left to get on the bus at the hotel, Coach Jim Wandling spoke to the team about the Benedict’s way through the “Benedict’s Hates a Quitter” motto and that if they find themselves down in this game they should use this to motivate themselves and keep fighting. The coaches and players motivated each other by telling each other that if they can score 2 they could win. Right back Hyun Sun SY said, “We never stopped believing and we weren’t going to give up on the goal we made at the start of the season.”

The Gray Bees came out the second half looking like a new team. They were on top most of the time but couldn’t find the back of the net until Rhys Armstrong UD2 won a penalty and put it away, making the score 2-1. Around 3 minutes later SBP put together a combination play and was finished by Marco Menacho SY bringing it back to 2-2.  The Ohio state rules are after the 80 minutes there are no further over time which made the game 2-2 the final score.

This score keeps the Gray Bees 3rd straight national championship hopes still alive and they will be up against Pennington, a top New Jersey program on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at NJIT’s soccer stadium in Newark. Preston Rushmore SY said, “We should bring the same energy we did in the second half against St.

Ignatius in every game and we will be unstoppable.”