The Jays soccer team has a current record of 7-1. The team won their most recent game against Blue Springs by a score of 1-0.  Some notable stats for the team this season include Senior Bryson Gosch with three goals, Lucas Porter with two goals and two assists, junior Jordan Gaona with one goal and two assists, sophomore Mitchell Dietrich with four goals and two assists, and senior Sam Dyer with one goal and one assist.

“I think we’re going to do really well this season, and we had some really good numbers last year,” coach Tom Rottjakob said. “We graduated three starters, losing a lot of our goal and assist production, but I believe that we’re picking up right where we left off last year.”

The team’s last season ended with a 13-4 record, ending with the Jays named as District 15 Champions. They were knocked out of State contention when they lost to Park Hill by a score of 1-2. Junior Eli Ozick would score the team’s only goal that game.

“We’ve got to have some players step up on the outside because that’s where we had some of our players graduate,” Rottjakob said. “We also need better wing play because I think that’s going to help us continue to improve throughout the year.”

Porter believes that the team needs to work better together to win.

“I think individually we’re pretty talented, but all of us working together and playing as a team will be key this season,” Porter said.

Just because the team needs to improve in a few spots due to 3 starters graduating, doesn’t mean they still can’t be excited for this season. Gosch, points to their game against Staley as his favorite part of the season so far.

“My favorite part of the season was probably the Staley game because we were down 1-0 and I scored with two minutes left and then we won on fouls,” Gosch said.

The men’s soccer team plays Ray Pec next at Ray Pec at 6:30 PM on Sept 29. Tickets can be found at https://lhsathletics.lps53.org/tickets or at the game for $3 for students or $5 dollars for adults. Their Twitter account can be found at @libsoccer and their website is https://lhsathletics.lps53.org/page/show/6513526-men-s-soccer-2021-.