The Wolverines’ non-league season concluded Saturday in a 10-9 win against St. Margaret’s Episcopal. The last time the team faced the Tartans was last year’s 15-8 CIF finals loss, so the win was considered redemption.
The Wolverines led St. Margaret’s by at least two goals until the fourth quarter, when a brief lapse in the Wolverine defense allowed the Tartans to score back-to-back goals in the last few minutes, tying game up at 9-9. The teams were at a stalemate until the third overtime period, when midfielder Noah Pompan ’14 scored the game-winner with 25 seconds left on the clock. The game was the longest game the Wolverines have played this season.
“I was very surprised that we played for so long,” midfielder Andrew Corlin ’15 said. “We were all just very in the game.”
The Wolverines experienced many narrow wins this season, most notably in a thrilling last-second winner over Crespi April 12.
Up 10-9 with around 30 seconds left, the Celts scored to tie the game and potentially force an overtime situation. However, with just a few seconds remaining on the clock, the Wolverines ran a hail mary play down the field. Attacker Brooks Hudgins ’14 passed the ball to attacker Roman Holthouse ’15 who scored to win the game and leads the team in scoring.
“It was just the most insane goal,” defender Andrew Park ’15 said. “Crespi was just insane. We didn’t play that well to start off the game and we started off a little slow, but we buckled down in the second half. To win the game, the ball hit the net, bounced back up and then rolled straight into the goal.”
Park considers the game to be pay back for the 14-13 loss to the Celts earlier in the season.
“I like to think we’re a talented team and when all of our players do our jobs and we do what were supposed to do our offense is undefendable,” Park said. “We just need to work on staying focused and doing our jobs.”
The squad has established themselves as a contending team in Southern California by playing against top teams such as Torrey Pines, Foothill and Peninsula, and only losing by a few goals each game.
“The disparity in talent of our schedule is pretty drastic,” midfielder Oliver Levitt ’15 said about the teams the Wolverines faced this season. “We’ve had four really hard games and we’ve lost three of them. Of those games, one was really close, one was a blow out and the most recent game against Torrey Pines was much closer than the score suggested.”
The Wolverines lost to the Torrey Pines Falcons 8-2 April 19. The Wolverines will face off against Loyola for the second time this season Friday before entering post-season play. They previously beat the Cubs 17-11 March 20. If they win the game, they will earn at least a share of the Mission League title.
Park is excited for playoffs, and thinks that the team is ready for a big post-season run after losing to St. Margaret’s last season in the finals.
“We’re better this year than we were last year,” Park said. “I don’t see why we wouldn’t make playoffs. Defensively we’ve improved on executing our slide package, getting our spots on clears, and running the plays we need to be running. As a team we just have to work on developing an overall sense of focus in general.”
