What began as a challenging season quickly turned into a statement run for The Highland Park Boys Varsity Soccer team. They fought through tight matchups, comeback wins, and many pressure-filled halves. And despite their inexperience, they ruled the field and became Regional Champions for the first time in 10 years. Let’s see how their playoff run turned out so well.
The Giants’ playoff run started at rival Deerfield High School. HP usually plays Deerfield twice a season, but they were matched up–now in the playoffs–for the 3rd time this year.
Sammy Hovis, a junior on the team, delved into their sharp tactical plan.
“We already clinched our playoff spot against Deerfield, so our late regular season game against them didn’t matter,” Hovis said. “We purposely let our starters rest for most of the game so that Deerfield wouldn’t be able to figure out what our strategy was going to be. That’s what led us to beat them in the playoffs.”
The Deerfield playoff game was a strategic masterpiece for Highland Park. They ended up beating the Warriors 3-1, advancing them to the next round against the brackets #1 seed: Saint Viator.
Aleksa Dragojevic, a junior on the team, said that teamwork was the biggest factor for the victory.
“Throughout the game, we showed togetherness, Dragojevic said. “Which is a big factor in why we ended up having the season we did in the end.”
The Giants traveled to Arlington Heights for their next intense matchup against Saint Viator. The first half of the game wasn’t the best-looking gameplay we’ve seen from Highland Park; with Viator scoring 2 goals, and HP only scoring 1.
(Russell Bleiman)
Ryan Zlotnik, a senior on the team, added that the biggest challenge for the team was their inexperience.
“Out of a group of about 25 players who suited up for varsity this season only either 5 or 6 were on the varsity team[before], Zlotnik said. “It took a few weeks for us to find our identity as a team, considering most of us had never played together before.”
But the Giants managed to pull through in the second half and they scored 2 more goals, beating the Lions 3-2. Senior Sam Ackermann led the team, scoring 2 goals, and Junior Aleksa Dragojevic scored 1.
“Early in the season if we conceded a goal… our body language would shift and [then] we would end up losing,” Zlotnik said. “Especially into the playoffs, our resilience as a group grew. We leaned on each other and played our hardest to try and extend our season for just one more game.”
The Giants moved onto the next playoff game, this time against Grayslake Central. The Rams were a tough match for Highland Park but the Giants came back strong with Senior Jaycek Roberts and Sophomore Nathan Erlich both scoring goals. The game was tied 2-2 and went into overtime. Unfortunately for HP, the Rams went on to score once more and officially ended the game, thus ending their season.
For Dragojevic, the loss wasn’t as much of a negative as it might seem. “The team handled the pressure of playoffs as best as we could’ve,” Dragojevic said. “[We] took it to the literal last period in the last game of our season.”
This year, Sam Ackerman was named the team MVP and an all-conference player. Joining him in the latter honor are Vajk Boros, Chris Ramos, and Ryan Zlotnik. As a whole, the growth for these Giants has been endless. And, although their season is now over, these Regional Champions will continue to work hard throughout the postseason, continuing their improvement from this fall.