Jack Moskowitz
sports editor

Despite the efforts of sophomore Alex Ochman, who shot the ball through the outstretched hands of the goalie and scored, the team came up short, losing 2-1 against Gaithersburg on Sept. 25.

The game started with Gaithersburg taking the lead early. They controlled the ball for most of the half. Toward the end of the first half, the ball found freshman left wing Ian Repie. Repie dribbled the ball up the sideline until he passed to his teammate, Ochman.

Ochman ran past the defenders and met the goalie at the box. Ochman kicked the ball, just missing the outstretched hands of the goalie and scoring in the bottom left corner. “I got the pass at the exact right time and was able to angle it right past the goalie to tie it up in the first half,” Ochman said.

The defense locked down Gaithersburg for most of the game. The defense is led by sophomore center back Thomas Jezek. Jezek frustrated the Gaithersburg offense with his consistent defense in the first half. Jezek’s defense held the attack to only one goal in the first half with the Trojans putting pressure on the defense. In the second half, Gaithersburg squeezed the ball past the back line for an easy goal for the Trojan striker. “It was hard to see the second goal go in with the focus we had on defense throughout the game, but there is more that we can improve on,” Jezek said.

The team was disappointed after the loss, which was a game that they believed they should have won. The captains took responsibility for the loss and stepped up in the locker roomand layed out a plan to make sure this doesn’t happen again. After the game, the team had a different attitude than they had coming into the game, which carried over to their practice the next day. Practice was more serious than normal with everyone focusing on their next game and what to improve on.“The captains did a good job showing leadership in the locker room and it set the mood that everything will be more serious,” Repie said.

The team’s next game against Quince Orchard got cancelled due to rain delay, with no makeup date set yet. The team was upset with the game getting cancelled because they believed that they had a good chance of winning. “It was hard seeing the game get cancelled because we were all so ready to see the outcome of the game, but all we can do now is practice and focus on our next game,” sophomore wing Jeremy Ullman said.