Another year, another championship for the Boys Junior Varsity Soccer Team. Last season, the team ended with 13 wins, 2 draws and just 1 loss, coming home with the dub at championships. This season, the Boys JV Soccer Team had a record of 11 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses, finishing top of the table with another dub. Some of the juniors who had played on the BHS Freshman Soccer Team and Junior Varsity Soccer Teams for the last three years haven’t even experienced a single year without a championship win. The Boys JV Soccer Team may be easily overlooked by many, but their accomplishments are quite incredible as always: winning the last 3 championships, scoring a combined 32 championship goals and conceding only 2 goals over these 3 seasons.
Roman Snegach, the JV goalie, explains the training that took place during the season: “Training runs after school for an hour and a half every day: between technical drills, conditioning and scrimmage our team was prepared on all fronts. I’d like to point out the quality coaching of Bob Mulligan and Joash Bashalany, from our freshman and JV winning seasons respectively. They permeated the abilities and team spirit of every player, and left us in the best possible shape to compete.”
Nearing championships, the team had some nail-biting games. Snegach was rotated between the JV’s team’s three goalies during the season, but began to start most of the games come championship time. At quarterfinals, the Bedford boys won 3 to 1, a breeze to what came at semis. At semifinals against Portsmouth, the game was about to be easily won by Bedford 1 to 0 until Portsmouth scored a wonder goal in the dying seconds, sending the teams to game-deciding penalty kicks. Come the shootout, Bedford didn’t miss once, and Snegach managed to save two of Portsmouth’s kicks, putting the JV team ecstatically through to the final, against a Concord team full of pulled-down varsity players.
Snegach explains the euphoric experience at finals, “We were all mentally and physically exhausted by that point, but I’m proud to say every player held their own out there, and normal time finished 0-0. This year’s champion would be decided by penalties. At that point, we all had put in an incredible shift to make it to penalties. When I stepped in net, I knew that I wouldn’t let the guys down. The goal felt much smaller, and their shooters seemed a lot less menacing. I saved their first penalty diving low and far to the right, and from there, our penalty kickers sunk every single kick to lift us to the threepeat. I can recall the absolute euphoria when sophomore Shane scored the last penalty: it all paid off.”
On the bus ride home, the Bedford JV soccer boys celebrated. They sang a song made up of lyrics commemorating Roman’s amazing performance: “We love you Roman, we do, oh Roman we love you!”
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