The Benjamin Bucs boys’ varsity soccer team traveled to Holy Trinity on Feb. 19th for the Region 2A Championship. The Tigers came out on top, 4-0, ending the Bucs’ season on a sad note.
The first 20 minutes of the game were hard fought, with many attempts from both teams. During the second 20 minutes, however, the Tigers adjusted to the game’s rainy conditions to score their first goal on a corner kick just before the halftime whistle. The Bucs’ uphill climb had just started.
Although Benjamin started the second half with good ball movement, the Tigers’ attack proved dominant. Around the 23rd minute, the Tigers scored on another corner kick, upping their lead going into a water break. With the Bucs’ morale down, the Tigers scored two more goals to secure their bid to the FHSAA State Championship Semifinals.
“Last night’s game was tough. We prepared to face a strong opponent who would give us no time on the ball. They were very good at what they do and we couldn’t hurt them enough in the ways that we wanted. They were very aggressive and direct and we gave them the opportunities they wanted. That was disappointing but the work rate from the players on the field could not be faulted,” Benjamin Head Coach Kris Steeves remarked.
Senior captain Maddox Hoffman agrees with the “executing” part. “We didn’t do a good enough job of creating chances. Definitely struggled to deal with the high pressure that Holy Trinity put on us. Needed to do a better job defending corners and playing out of the back,” Hoffman explained.
Seeing it all from the back, goalie and sophomore Andrews Rodgers had a different take.
“Although the team struggled to build from the back and deal with Trinity’s high press, we mainly couldn’t get the ball out of our midfield into the attacking third where we have done better earlier in the season. The struggle on set pieces was rough, especially corners as that is what we conceded our first two goals from and was basically their only threat for the first three quarters,” Rodgers noted.
With many emotional goodbyes from seniors, senior Ford Cash reflected on his soccer career at Benjamin.
“It didn’t hit me in the moment that was my last game, but on my bus ride home, I thought about my whole career at Benjamin and how much fun I had playing with my best friends on the pitch,” Cash stated. “My mindset changed from the regular season, but I went into every game not knowing the outcome, so I played like it was my last for those games.”
Weather conditions were a big factor in the game. Senior Dillon Hoban thinks the game would have gone a different way if it had not rained.
“The rainy conditions were a ginormous factor. We played on turf and with water on it, the ball skids so much, and it is almost impossible to time. It was for sure harder for our midfielders to control the ball,” Hoban noted.
The game’s lone yellow card was given to Benjamin senior Gavin Gelinas, an act which sidelined the team’s potent midfielder during the game’s most crucial period.
“The game relied a lot more on physicality than technique due to the rainy conditions. Our team throughout the season played as a system as we passed from defense to midfield to attack, so the rainy conditions definitely made it a lot harder to do so. I think that the game could have definitely gone either way in any condition, which is how soccer always has been,” Gelinas adds to Hoban.
Moving into the 2025-26 offseason, sophomore Cian Hoban sees a bright side for the Bucs.
“The seniors have all been such a big part of our team for the last couple of years. Most of our attack and midfield are seniors so we will need to rebuild with new teammates, we had six seniors starting this past year so all those gaps in the lineup will need to be filled,” C. Hoban recalled.
Coach Steeves built a connection with his senior players over the past four years. Losing nine seniors is tough for a squad, but Steeves sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
“We lose some experience and some quality with seniors graduating but that’s no excuse for the group that remains. If anything it needs to be the spark that pushes them to do even better and step up. We still have some quality left and each year throws up new challenges and new players we may be able to incorporate which is always a fun part of the job,” Coach Steeves exclaimed.
The boys had some fun this season.
“The camaraderie of the team was different than years prior. I had so much fun at practices and on the away game buses. I do not think that we would have done as well as we did without the team bonding and the fun that everybody brought,” James Carpenter explained the fun he had on the team this season.
