At the beginning of the year I had one goal in mind: put the soccer program at the top of the sports Mount Carmel pedestal along with football. Along the way I believed that I was good enough to start, to score, to deserve credit, and to be a captain, but I quickly realized my beliefs were wrong. Not only did I have a bad touch on the ball, but I also lacked vision to see coach’s plan.

The soccer season began in early August, two weeks before school began.  Those two weeks are called “try-outs,” but they are really just conditioning. (No one is going to show up if you say conditioning.)  Still, those two weeks are what I think propelled the team forward, producing great stamina and better fitness levels overall.

Those weeks of hard work enabled the team to accomplish what no other MC soccer had done previously.  After a regular with 15 victories and just 3 defeats, the Caravan charged into the playoffs, defeating Solorio, Instituto Career Health Science Academy, Back of the Yards, Bulls/Sox Academy, and Washington High School in order to reach the IHSA semi-finals.

This year, every team in the final four of the class 2A state playoffs was making history, as this was the furthest any had ever gone.  The loud and enthusiastic crowd support made clear that every school was proud of their boys.

There was Benet Academy, which has been a dominant program in the suburbs and occasionally made it past sectionals, but never to super-sectionals. Latin, more or less the dark horse of its sectional, was the surprise winner of the semifinal against Benet. Then there was Jacksonville, a soccer program that – at least according to the game’s broadcasters – many coaches could only dream of assembling. While this program has consistenly been a powerhouse in central Illinois, it also never managed to get past the elite eight.

Our first game semi-final was against Jacksonville, and before the kickoff the teams didn’t seem even. From my perspective, it looked like a practice in which the A-team was on one side and the B-team on the other.

Close your eyes and imagine this: your tallest guy is the same height as their fifth tallest starter. Keep your eyes closed, and now imagine that they have a crowd of at least 300 rowdy students ready to let loose, after diving four hours to see their team make history. Don’t forget they have parents, siblings, and grandparents who made the long trip.

Now open your eyes, and picture that all of this is true and the crowd is already loud before the first kick. Then you look up and you don’t see any students in your school’s section, and you wonder where all the school spirit has gone. It’s not like because of your hard work on the field they got to leave school at 11 a.m. or anything.

Nerves rattled, no student section, and the feeling that no one cares about soccer: you probably get what every soccer player on our team – bench or starter – was feeling.  Nevertheless, the Caravan did its thing, and started the game like a real team.

It was ten minutes into the game when the MC student section finally arrived. Caravan students obviously are not new to cheering for their teams, given years of experience supporting football championships, but it seemed like their counterparts in the Jacksonville section numbered in the hundreds. We had barely 90 kids, but they made all the noise in the world. If this wasn’t the state semifinal game, I think I may have joined the student section in order to feel like a piece of the real action.

We dominated possession in the first half, and like usual took our time shooting on target while letting our nationally ranked goalie keep us in the game. At the end of the first half, with less than 20 seconds on the clock, we get a free-kick at the midfield. Giovanny Vargas took the kick and blasted it 40 yards in the air to Josiah Ash who headed it down to Cesar Cosio who kicked the ball into the back of the net for the first goal. With that, the first half was over.

The second half began with things going Jacksonville’s way. They had more chances, shots, time of possession on the ball, and their rowdy crowd was now back in the game. With 12 minutes left before the final whistle, the biggest kid on the field, a 6’7 defender, played striker for one play. On that one play he headed the ball down to an open teammate who scored to equalize.

The equalizer by Jacksonville sent the game into overtime. This would be the third straight game where the Caravan went to overtime. Overtime was interesting, but it wasn’t enough to separate the teams, so the game went to penalty kicks.

In penalties 5 shooters from each team take a shot and whoever scores the most wins. Josiah Ash stepped up and shot the first one like usual, but this time the ball missed the goal and went over the bar.

Five Caravan shooters later, the score was Carmel 4- Jacksonville 4, with The Crimson still having one more shot. If Jacksonville scored they would go to the state finals. The shot came and sophomore goalie Sergio Valencia came up with the huge block to continue the game.

Now it went down to 1 and 1 penalty shots.  If one team missed and the other team made it, they would win. The ninth penalty taker, Sergio Valencia, stepped up and scored. The next Jacksonville shooter came up and the shot was blocked by Sergio to send the Caravan to the final. We ran onto the field leaping and shouting, but the referee called it back because Sergio jumped off the line, which was illegal. The same shooter came up again, but this time hit the post and missed. After some confusion, the referees acknowledged that the game was over.  This time we celebrated without getting yelled at.

After our game, we watched the first half of Benet vs Latin, and it was clear to everyone that we were going to play Benet in the final. That was the team we wanted, since last year, as a #8 seed in the sectional, we had upset the #1 seed Benet.  We wanted to play them again and beat them for the state title. It would have been the Chicago Catholic League’s finest vs the East Suburban Catholic Conference’s best. It would’ve been a thriller.

But it wasn’t to be. Latin defeated Benet, which set up a final that left us disappointed and feeling empty.

There were bad calls, dirty hits, chanting and taunting by the crowd (at least by the Latin students’ section), and a total of four red cards. If anything, this game seemed like a one-sided affair. To be completely honest, this was a clearly winnable game against the first team we matched up with evenly by size.

Before the game begin, the Latin Romans’ student section was getting in the mindset of the Caravan players. Throughout the game, the student section was calling out players’ names whenever they received the ball. For example; “Jay-len,” or Gi-o,” or fresh-man (this last chant was specifically for Felix Mendoza, the only freshman starter on our team).

The Latin student section was about a hundred people less than Jacksonville, but they were fired up. The Caravan student section numbered much less, but the family and friend section made up for it, specifically the Caravan Dads. They kept the Caravan crowd in the game.

As usual, we scored first. Josiah Ash crossed the ball into to senior Jaylen Anderson who kicked it in. The Caravan took the 1-0 lead into the half and were 7 minutes away from the illustrious state title when disaster struck. A bad clearance off a throw-in allowed for an early cross which was scored by a running attacker as the crowd could only watch in disappointment.

Shortly after, a Latin defender received a red card and was ejected from the game, forcing Latin to play with ten men for the last five minutes. Then, in the last five seconds of regulation time, Mount Carmel junior Josiah Ash received a red card and was ejected for going in too strong on a play close to the goalie.

The game was even 1-1, and even with 10 players on the field for both sides. The first period of overtime was ending when Latin got a breakaway chance on goal. Junior defender Giovanny Vargas came from nowhere to stop the break but came in too hard and fouled the attacker, giving them a penalty kick and Vargas his second yellow card of the game, which is an ejection (two yellow cards equal one red card). The penalty was scored and the score at the end of the first ten minutes was 2-1 Latin.

With a man down and playing in our fourth consecutive overtime, the Caravan was exhausted but battled on. The Latin defense proved to be too strong and on a quick counterattack of a 3 on 1 they scored their second goal in overtime. With that goal, any hopes of a comeback were deflated.

We lost the game 3-1, finishing the season as the second best team in the entire 2A state class.

There were many broken hearts and watery eyes as the final buzzer sounded on an historic season. It didn’t help that Latin was celebrating and the student section was chanting, “Ro-mans.” This game should have been ours.  Although I’m crying a little while writing this, I will always be proud of my team for making school history and sticking together.

Getting that second place trophy and medal, and then posing for a photo was as heartbreaking as it will ever get. Many wonder if we can replicate this year’s success next season, as we move into the 3A class. 3A teams and schools are typically thought of to be better since they have more students.  For me, it means a bigger crowd to silence and no game will be a cake walk.

No matter what, this team will go down as the best Mount Carmel Varsity Soccer team (for now).  Next year, we finish what we started.