Photo courtesy of Kanetre Areewongsagul

WJ boys soccer gather up for the pre-game team-talk led by Head Co-Coach Anthony Tossounian. The score ended as a 5-0 loss at Walt Whitman High School.

WJ boys’ soccer season was abruptly halted by an upsetting loss to BCC in their first game of the playoffs, 3-1. WJ was up first, with a clinical finish from freshman Bardia Hormozi. After a series of disallowed goals, BCC went on to win the game.

“We started off pretty well. We went up with a great goal but we had two goals counted offside, which was very debatable. Then, right before the half, they scored a goal and things started to fall after that. We kept a lot of pressure throughout the whole game and we could’ve scored more, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Hormozi said.

Junior Amir Gugssa had a similar outlook on how the game went and what the playoffs could have come to.

“We gave our all on Saturday’s game against BCC\; unfortunately, we lost and it was disappointing, but there was also terrible refereeing which was out of our control. I think we performed really well, especially in the first half of the game, and it wasn’t a result we deserved. We even had a first round bye for playoffs which showed our teams potential,” Gugssa said.

Success in the playoffs was almost predicted after a strong season in which they finished 9-5. WJ played BCC in the regular season and were hoping to get a better result this time out. During their first meeting, they went to overtime and ended up losing 2-1.

“If we beat BCC this time around, I think we would have gone very far. I thought we could have gone to the finals. We worked really well as a team and we had a lot of talent. I hate to see the season to come to an end, but I am happy with the season, everyone played their best I’m sure,” Hormozi said.

Senior Ben Tilkin reflected positively on his last season on the team.

“I thought we would take it all the way. I was very confident in this team. While young, we’ve got a lot of talent. Nevertheless, I am satisfied. While the exit wasn’t great, we played a great season and had a great time doing it,” Tilkin said.

WJ boys’ soccer showed great improvement from last year, despite a similar first game playoff loss.

“I expect next year to be an even better year. Now we know what to work on, how to approach things. We know each other very well so we can use that chemistry to our advantage,” Hormozi said.