On October 16, our school’s boy’s soccer team won the Lancaster Lebanon League after a long hard-fought League season. With the win, the team moved on to districts. Unfortunately, the team’s district run ended with a heartbreaking quarterfinal loss of 2-1 at home against Mechanichsburg, after a late goal in the 2nd half by the away side advanced their team to the semifinal. Despite this, our team had a great season, maintaining a record of 17 wins, three losses, and 1 draw. This came despite the losses of a pair of senior centerbacks, Eric Jurgill and Liam Cox, to injuries early on in the season. In the league playoffs, the team defeated Lancaster Mennonite and Cocalico to make it to the league championship game. Coming into the League Final, the teams were even in games against each other, with Warwick beating Hempfield 2-0 at home earlier in the season before Hempfield later beat Warwick 3-0, also at home. The first 80 minutes of regular time ended in a scoreless deadlock, so the teams went into a golden goal overtime period- meaning that the next goal would be the championship winner. After 4 minutes, senior Riley Kirkham’s cross into the box was met by the header by fellow senior Julian Riesig. The header was cleared off the line by a Warwick defender, but Julian continued the run to score the winning goal for Hempfield.
The 2024 League Champions were the most recent of our school’s 8 winning teams. Three of these wins came in the 80’s, when the team had a string of straight titles in 1987, 1988, and 1989. One member of these teams was Sajy Mathew, one of the current coaches for the Jr. High Boys Soccer Team. He remarked that “It’s been fun to watch the team come together in the environment I was able to play in, with the team playing well, and the team making it to districts. And being part of the Middle School Program, I’m always excited to see the players I worked with coming up to this stage now.” One of those players he worked with at the Middle School level is his son, Alex Mathew. Alex is a junior at the high school playing centerback in the defense. When asked about his dad, he said that “I feel proud that I’m the 2nd family member to win the League Title, and also to follow in my dad’s footsteps.” Alex is not the only player on the team to express this feeling. His teammate, defensive midfielder Owen Mowery, a senior at the high school, expressed a similar feeling when asked about his dad, Ryan Mowery, who also played for Hempfield’s team in the 90’s, graduating in 1998. Owen said, “When I first picked my number, when I first started playing soccer, I picked 18 and it’s been that way ever since…and that was even before I even knew it was his number…that connection’s very personal.” His dad, Ryan, also talked about how special it is to have his son wear the same number, and for the same school, and being able to play for the same coach, Coach Ashely, in that 25 year span. No matter how many years later, that connection with passing on a love of the game will always be special.
