MARBLEHEAD — It’s hard to go undefeated in any sport for an entire season, especially when a team has to go up against five other unbeaten teams along the way. But that’s just what the Marblehead junior varsity boys soccer team did in 2019, rolling through a number of opponents to finish the season at 15-0-1.
“We had a great year,” said coach Elmer Magana. “We really played as a unit and put the team before any individual player. Lots of teams have talented players but can’t put it together in a team environment, and we were able to take our talent and turn ourselves into a well-oiled machine.”
That well-oiled machine took down five then-undefeated teams over the course of the season, including Burlington and local rival Peabody. The Magicians won these games by a wide margin, using a potent combination of offensive prowess and defensive sturdiness to outscore their opponents 90-6 over the course of the year.
Offensively, Marblehead was led by a pair of 15-goal scorers in Justin Featherston and team MVP Thomas Dack. Center midfielder Tyler Honlotter, the playmaker for the Magicians, scored 13 goals and facilitated a number of others.
“Thomas was huge for us at outside mid this year, he’s so skilled with the ball and can also defend well,” said Magana. “Justin made a number of plays for us as well, and our entire offense basically ran through Tyler on every play.”
On the defensive end it all started with goalkeeper Gavin Shevory, who only allowed six goals all year. Center-back Nate Bowden also held things down on the back end for Marblehead.
“Gavin came up so big for us in some crucial spots,” said Magana. “He made some key saves for us in games against Peabody and Burlington, which were both close games.”
But as is the case with junior varsity squads, the Marblehead team will look much different come next season.
“We’re really talented, and unfortunately for us that means we’ll have probably 15 of our 22 players move on to varsity next year,” said Magana. “It’s great for the program obviously, but it also means we will have to replace a lot of good players.”
Still, Magana knows that the future is bright for the junior varsity team as well.
“We’re lucky to have three soccer teams here at Marblehead, and our JV-2 team has shown a lot of promise,” said Magana. “A lot of those kids will move up to JV-1 next season and hopefully that will help take away the sting of losing so many great players.”