Last year, the varsity boys soccer team was the first male soccer team in Virginia to win three consecutive state titles. This year, they showed their competitors in the Bull Run District and 2A East Region how hungry they were for more with their whopping 145-6 goal ratio and fourth state title.
“We didn’t take our foot off the gas until the last whistle,” sophomore Daniel SanGiovanni said. “We took all of the skill that we worked so hard to perfect all season and we left it all out on the field.”
Defender SanGiovanni embodied this in the first five minutes of the match by scoring the Mustang’s first goal of the Saturday, June 11 state final.
“I couldn’t believe it since it was my first goal…” SanGiovanni said. “When I saw it hit the back of the net, I knew it’s what we needed to get us going… after that, I knew we were going to score again soon.”
And they did – but only after SanGiovanni’s goal line save prevented the Mustangs from being tied up by Bruton (14-10) and escalated the intense match.
“Dan has been consistent all season and definitely was the unsung hero in the state final. The man of the match,” head varsity coach Frank Spinello said.
The remaining five goals were scored by record breaking players and First Team All State members Elliot Mercado, Donal Reyes de Leon, and Grant Goodwin.
In addition to winning another state title, 2A Boys State Player of the year Grant Goodwin became the first male soccer player in Virginia to win four consecutive state championship titles.
“I came into a program that was already really good,” Goodwin said. “I appreciate the fact that I had the opportunity to come [to Radford] four times to play the highest level of soccer that I can in 2A.”
Goodwin’s co-captain Elliot Mercado drove the team forward with three goals, similar to his hat-trick in the 2015 state final, and added to his 119 goal record this season. The three time First Team All State Player is currently in the VHSL record book for his 40 goals his sophomore year, 41 goals his junior year, and 38 his senior year.
Not far behind Mercado’s historical goal count is First Team All State Player Donal Reyes de Leon with 40 goals in a single season and eight goals in one game, the most single game goals in VHSL history.
“In the championship game, we played together and that was evident….You can’t just shut down one of our guys because the whole team is working together,” George Mason’s Assistant Athletic Director Julie Bravin said.
The team’s endless fight and unity was second nature to them as it is something they began working on long before the spring season started. They began meeting twice a week in November and worked in six week periods until tryouts began in late February.
“We do 50% conditioning and 50% scrimmaging. We [also] do some ball skills but mostly [just] let them play and get used to each other, which I think really helps. Our [other] main purpose is to get them in shape before the season starts,” Spinello said.
Despite their continuous triumphs throughout the season, Spinello and his players are very reflective on the few setbacks that got them to where they are today.
The boys soccer team faced 3A opponent school William Monroe two times in the regular season. Their first game with them, a close 2-1 win at home, marked their 50th consecutive win since April 2014. However, their second game with Monroe resulted in a 1-0 loss for the Mustangs and ended their then 59 game win streak.
Despite their first loss in two years, Spinello acknowledges the 40 shots they had in the May 17 game compared to the two shots the Dragons had all game.
“That was probably the proudest of the team I was the whole season,” Spinello said. “They kept their heads up and played their match like they were supposed to, it’s just the result didn’t go our way that day. They had positive attitudes and were great sportsmans with the other team afterwards. So, that’s probably when I knew that the team had what it takes to win it all.”
The biggest obstacle for the team was finding their backline after losing three starting defenders, five midfielders, and one starting goalkeeper from the last year’s graduating class.
“We knew Walker (junior starting goalkeeper) would be strong in the goal, it was just a matter of finding three capable defenders to put in front of them,” Spinello said.
Spinello lined the left and right defending positions with new additions to the team, freshman Miles Langford and sophomore Daniel SanGiovanni. The centerback position was still empty and, by the first scrimmage of the season, was voluntarily taken by junior Wesley Quill after Spinello offered to flip a coin among two attacking players.
“He played so good in that scrimmage that we never took him out of that spot,” Spinello said.
Spinello is confident in the consistency in back and knows that the young combination will prove to be tough to score on. His next task is to find a way to produce the 110 goals that they lose next year to his starting attackers and graduating seniors, Samsudeen Sallah, Mateus de Carvalho, Grant Goodwin, Donal Reyes de Leon, and Elliot Mercado.
The vast loss of players has been a challenge to the boys soccer team in the past, and will likely be one for the team next year. However, the boys soccer team has proved resilient in the past and will continue to do so with the endless effort from coaches and players alike.
