Arrowhead Soccer team exceeds expectations, but falls short in State Championship

The boys soccer team had a chance to play in the state championship on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Uihlein field in Milwaukee. The Warhawks played the Marquette Hilltoppers and lost 2-1 in a heart breaker.

Senior soccer player Jake Stemper says, “The season went fantastic and I had a great time with my teammates.”

At the start of the season, the boys team was ranked 10th in the state according to maxpreps.com. They started out the season with a loss to Madison East with a score of 3-1. The following game they beat Hamilton by a score of 1-0.  They lost the next two games after that, and tied Waukesha South 8-8 in their highest scoring game of the season.

Their start to the season was very slow as their record was 1 win, 3 losses and 1 tie but made a rebound towards the end of the season as they beat the best division 2 team in the state, in Waukesha West.

However, the Warhawks did not win conference. They were 1 point shy of tying Waukesha West and came in second. The final top 3 for the Classic Eight conference was, Waukesha West in first, Arrowhead in 2nd and Oconomowoc in 3rd.

In the first round of the playoffs, Arrowhead opened with a 10-0 win, to advance to the regional championship. They then took on Homestead at Arrowhead High School and won easily 5-2 putting them in sectionals.

The first sectional game they played was against Hamilton. The game was played at home and the final score was 2-0, Arrowhead the winner.

Then in the sectional championship, Arrowhead played Oshkosh West at Oconomowoc High school and won with a score of 2-0 to move on to the state tournament.

In the state semifinals, Arrowhead matched up against Eau Claire Memorial at Uihlein field in Milwaukee. Arrowhead was down 1-2 in the first half but ended up getting the victory 4-2 in the end.

Arrowhead would move on to play Marquette in the State finals where Marquette has won the last 18/19 state titles. The first opportunity for Arrowhead was about 15 minutes in when senior Luke Dubnicka hit the crossbar on a volley outside of the box. However, Arrowhead was down 1-0 at halftime because of a 25th minute own goal off of a cross from marquette. Arrowhead scored early in the 2nd half, a shot from Danny Durand. In the 79th minute, Marquette scored on a Penalty kick to Marquette up 2-1. WIth 20 minutes left, it was too much to overcome for the Warhawks as they fell to Marquette with a final score of 2-1.

Senior Soccer player Kyle Cissne said “ I am going to miss playing with these guys, but it was a good last push in the playoffs.” He also added, “I wish we could play that championship game over just one more time, just to go out on the field and give it our all one last time.”