There was action from the opening whistle of the boys varsity soccer game against rival Sacred Heart Prep on Friday, Jan. 12 when senior Eric Schmidtke scored just nine seconds into the game. The Knights did not let up, continuing their early march toward a league title with four more goals and a landslide 5-0 win over the Gators. Menlo now sits atop the WBAL with a 6-1-2 overall record and 4-0 record in league play. Head coach Daniel Hicker was happy with the performance that Menlo put forth. “The level of maturity that we showed in our play [was high],” he said. “[And] also the consistency throughout the game was really good.” 

What might have been a school record for the fastest goal helped put Menlo at an immediate advantage; the team scored two more goals on SHP in the last 15 minutes of the half and maintained possession on their side of the field for most of the next half. 

After an overturned goal from SHP due to an offsides call, Menlo went into the second half with the kickoff and dominated possession as they had in the first half. The ball rarely moved into Menlo’s defensive side of the field, and by the 61st minute, senior captain Sandro Velazquez scored the team’s fourth goal, deepening the lead against SHP. 

With three minutes left in the game, Menlo pushed toward SHP’s goal and scored a final time, setting the final score at 5-0. Three minutes later the final whistle was blown and the Menlo boys varsity soccer team came off the field victorious.

Hicker believes that the team had prepared well for the game. “Coming into today, the signal was just be who we are as a player, [and be] who we are as a team,” Hicker said. While the soccer team feels trained physically, Hicker outlined additional skills they were trying to build upon. “A lot of the skill piece, I think, is our mental performance or mental games, which a mental performance coach, Francis Santora works with us on,” he said.