The Boys Varsity Soccer Team celebrated Senior Night against the Fox Warriors but was defeated 4-1, Oct. 21.

With the Wildcats coming into the game with a record of 13-5 and Fox at 7-12 it seemed like Senior Night would result in a win, but Fox might have been underrated coming into the game.

“We were really excited and ready for the game,” Kyle Haller, team captain, said. “I think we just underestimated them.”

The first action of the game came with 31 minutes left in the first half when Cody Voney, Fox forward,  scored the first goal of his hat trick, which was set-up by a centering pass in front of the goal opening up the middle of the box for Voney to put the ball in the net.

Six minutes later, Voney scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway, beating the Wildcat defense and, eventually, Sam Peterson, goalie.

“We just needed one goal,” Mr. Gary Schneider, head coach, said. “We weren’t going to come back all at once.”

With just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half,  the Wildcats squandered many chances near the Fox goal despite turning up the offensive pressure.

“That’s why soccer sucks,” Coach Schneider said. “You can dominate a game, but if you don’t score none of it matters.”

The Wildcats went into halftime trailing 2-0 and attempted to change their approach for the second half.

“We moved three people up,” Mitch Chambliss, defense, said. “We strengthened our offense in the second half.”

Just out of halftime, Voney added the third goal to complete the hat-trick but not without some controversy.

Celebrating the goal, Voney passed the Catpound, which was larger and louder than usual in support of the seniors and blew kisses at the students in response to their high energy, but many people on the team noted that the crowd might have been the problem.

“Our crowd was rude,” Coach Schneider said. “It didn’t show what EHS is all about.”

Despite the raucousness of the Catpound, players still enjoyed having such a large crowd.

“It might have been overdone to some extent,” Chambliss said. “But we still appreciated how into the game they were.”

Then with  25:36 left in the second half, the Wildcats trimmed the lead to 3-1 after a goal in front of the net by Kyle Gardner, forward.

Just one minute later Fox answered with another goal to extend their lead to 4-1.

“After they scored their last goal we kind of just gave up,” Chambliss said. “We came into the game expecting to win so that last one kind of hurt.”

The Wildcats fell to 14-6 on the year with the 4-1 loss in their last home game of the year.