By Kylie Siebert, Executive Editor
Varsity soccer is seeking for another regional title.
The Knights were 9-4-1 in the regular season and 5-3-1 in conference as of press dead.
The team defeated Marengo, Yorkville and Rochelle early in the season before falling to DeKalb on Sept. 13 and again on Sept. 29. After a 1-1 tie against Morris on Sept. 15, the Knights beat them the second time with a score of 1-0 on Oct. 4.
The Knights then lost 3-2 to Rochelle on Oct. 6 and 2-0 to Plainfield East on Oct. 8, before turning things around with a 3-2 win over Yorkville on Oct. 11.
“We’re happy with how we’re doing, but we could always be doing better,” Head Coach Scott Parillo said.
“We’ve had an interesting season this year. It started out shaky, and we had our ups and downs, but we are riding on our winning streak and hoping for the best,” senior Thanasi Pesmajoglou said
The team has been working hard on defensive training and they have also been working on moving up the field fast on offense.
“We have a great amount of experience, and we know each other’s playing styles,” Pesmajoglou said. “We all try our hardest to win, and I think we all love the game.”
Sophomore Tyler Siebert said that they are working on playing as a team instead of individuals.
“We are a great team filled with lots of individual talent, but we just need to put it all together and play as one team. Once we do that, we will be unstoppable,” Siebert said.
Senior Jordan Escobedo is leading the team with 14 goals, while junior Alex Gil and sophomore Anthony Parillo are leading the team in assists.
According to Parillo this is one of the most aggressive groups the program has seen in a while.
“We hope to win regionals again and make it farther in sectionals than the first round like last year,” Parillo said.
The team won a regional title last year, the first since 2004, and made it to sectionals—a performance the team hopes to repeat. To do so, the team will have to get through a strong DeKalb team, which has already defeated them twice.
“We want to win a regional championship and go on from there,” Pesmajoglou said.
