On Thursday, February 14, 3rd seed Jesuit and 6th seed Tokay went head to head in Jesuit’s stadium in the second round of Section playoffs. Jesuit has had many intense and significant games to this point in the season, but this match was the biggest and had the most intense atmosphere and importance on the line through all the games so far. Although Jesuit is one of the top seeds in the Sac Joaquin Section, things were equalized on this day and it looked like both teams had an equal shot at victory from early on. Tokay was attacking aggressively but Jesuit was steadfastly defending and getting big clears, with a little added danger. This was arguably the most challenging team Jesuit had faced so far this season, and in the 8th minute Tokay striked first. A Jesuit defender had a fair and in fact, very soft, defensive play on a Tokay forward, but the visiting team was given a free kick with a big misjudgment by the referee. The spot was a bit outside the penalty box, and a big man stepped up and executed an absolute crushing blow under the wall and into the lower left corner of goal, before the goalie had a chance to react. It was 1-0 Tokay now, and although early, the atmosphere was quite nervous for Jesuit. Both teams continued with full force and aggression, despite some cowardly defense. Jesuit stayed cool, calm, and composed and tried to handle only what they could, their own game, and not give in too much to the outward frustrations that were going on in the game. About halfway through the first half, a Tokay player got a red card for spitting on a Jesuit player, and Tokay was now down to 10 men, so the home team had more hope. Then, Jesuit’s game plan paid off when in the 24th minute Jesuit advanced up the field together and after some nice connecting passes the ball was tossed up to Matt Kahn who nailed a flexible header accurately under a defender’s feet and in past the goal keeper. The Jesuit faithful had their first stimulant, and they were acting already like they were victorious. This energy continued the rest of the game.

Half Jesuit 1-1 Tokay

The number three seeded home team mostly had the upper hand during the first part of the second half, but things remained scoreless for a little bit. Then in the 62nd minute, Jesuit was again off to the races on the offense and the ball was slid to Christian Honig who served a perfect ball through the air to Julian Churchill, who unquestionably knocked the ball in the back of the net with a header. At this point the Jesuit side was triumphant. And just 11 minutes later, Luke Bone balanced a nice through ball and in the middle of a spread-out crowd of defenders, poked a powerful left-footed shot in across goal to pretty much cap off of the game. Jesuit used phenomenal game management and time management for the rest of the game to peacefully end the match. The tenacity shown in this game will be remembered for a long time. The final score was 3-1 to Jesuit, and they advance to the Section semifinals, which will take place on Tuesday, February 19, against Pitman.

submitted by Gage Biery ‘20