Despite the brutal summer heat, the St. Louis U. High soccer team started off the season in a positive direction, tying Chaminade, beating Marquette, and relentlessly routing St. Mary’s. The Jr. Bills played these games over the course of four days with field temperatures consistently in the 90’s for Marquette and St. Mary’s. 

^{Gabe Khazen going up for a header.  photo | Owen Williams}

“Playing three games in four days was hard, especially with the heat,” said senior Gabe Khazen.“I had to make sure I was stretched and hydrated a lot, but these games exemplified our team’s endurance pretty well, being able to fight and bring the intensity.”

The Jr. Bills started their season with an away game on Saturday against Chaminade. The freshman and sophomore teams played first, both achieving victories of 7-1 and 1-0 respectively, with varsity playing after them. 

“Before the game, we were fired up and ready to play,” said senior Kole Schnitzmeier. The fans were also fired up, with Blue Crew leading many students in a march over to the field, letting people know they had arrived.

Right after kickoff, it was immediately physical, with SLUH winning the possession early in the game. As the game continued, there weren’t many shots on goal, as much of the game was played in the midfield. 

Towards the end of the first half, SLUH forced a turnover and Khazan played a through ball to senior Luke Schuman that sent him in one on one with the goalie. Schuman dribbled around the goalie and fired the ball into the back of the net to give the Jr. Bills the lead. He then performed his much awaited knee slide celebration and the SLUH student section went wild. 

Going into halftime, morale was high for SLUH and with the very high heat, they took their rest in the shade. 

As the Jr. Bills retook the field in the second half, they kept the pressure on and created multiple chances. Due to the pressure SLUH applied, Khazen got the ball at midfield, played a good ball to Schuman who out ran the left back to the ball and played a cross to junior Brock McMahon at the far post who tapped it in to get the 2-0 lead. 

“I knew he was gonna be there,” said Schuman. “We practiced the exact thing in warmups.”  

After a quiet middle of the second half, Chaminade started gaining some momentum. With the end of the game nearing, SLUH committed a foul near the top of the box, giving Chaminade a good opportunity with a dangerous free kick. SLUH set a wall and Chaminade talked over their approach. As Chaminade kicked the ball, it ricocheted off the wall and went in, giving Chaminade momentum to try and set up a comeback. As they celebrated, their student section ran onto the field and received a warning from the referee. 

Near the end of the game, SLUH committed a foul in the box, gifting the Red Devils a penalty kick. As the crowd went silent, the Chaminade player fired it into the bottom left corner to tie the game up 2-2. Again, as the celebration went on, the opposing student section went on to the field and got kicked out of the game, being forced to move behind the fence. Since this was a league game, SLUH ended up tying Chaminade 2-2 with an unlucky finish to a great start of the game. 

“I think we looked tired, with playing on the grass, the legs were heavy,” said head coach Bob O’Connell. “There was so much good we did for the first 65 minutes. I really felt we only had like a bad 15-20 at the most, but that's soccer for a young team.” 

The Jr. Bills had lots of flashes of potential and positives in this season opener but unfortunately couldn’t pull off the victory. 

After a day of rest, the Jr. Bills faced another solid opponent, the Marquette Mustangs for their home opener. With the heat advisory going on, the game was moved back to 8:00 p.m., a very unusual start time, but that didn't stop the Jr. Bills. 

Late in the first half, senior Andrew Hammond capitalized on a Marquette foul in the box by firing a PK down the middle to give SLUH the 1-0 lead. 

“In the Marquette game we set a standard for ourselves to not become complacent since we obtained the lead, “ said Hammond, "especially since we lost our focus and grit in the Chaminade game.”

Despite transitioning from playing club soccer to playing for SLUH for his senior season, Hammond proved to be a key player against Marquette. 

“The transition from club soccer to high soccer has definitely been big, but something that I wished I had done sooner, it has brought me true joy being around my classmates and seeing the student sections popping out is something that I’ve never experienced while playing soccer,” said Hammond.

Just like the first half, the second half started slowly with not much action from either team. With about 15 minutes left in the half, Khazen received the ball from senior captain Paddy Byrne near the left sideline. After a few dribbles into the middle, Khazen fired a screamer from a few yards outside the box into the right upper corner of the goal to give SLUH the 2-0 lead. 

“I remember Teddy behind me yelling ‘Have a hit’ so I thought ‘Why not?’ ” said Khazen. “As I hit the ball I saw it soar in a straight line hitting the top corner. I was honestly in shock, the goal felt incredible especially since it was my first goal of the season.”   

However, the Jr. Bills didn’t stop there. McMahon played a 1-2 pass to Schuman in the middle of the box and after a nice finish from Schuman around the penalty spot, the Jr. Bills took a 3-0 lead, the second connection from those two this season leading to a goal. 

“When we played Marquette I was really proud of it,” said O’Connell. “All the things that we asked them to work on and saw in the field in terms of our shape, we were so much better on Monday.”

SLUH had to come back quickly the next day with another game against another city school, St. Mary’s. The game was no challenge for the Jr. Bills, as they won 7-0. The scoring started off early with a header off a corner by Khazen, followed up with goals by Schuman, senior Teddy Cotton, an own goal, sophomore Max Minnigerode, sophomore Nate Burns, and junior JT Porter. 

After the season last year, SLUH lost 22 out of its 26 players, a very drastic change, and with a few games under their belt, the team is starting to click and gain chemistry.

“It's just a different puzzle,” said O’Connell. “It's a different team. It's a different identity. It's our job just to figure out how they all go together this year.”

With two great bounce back wins after the tie against Chaminade, SLUH looks to keep the winning streak going. They play Springfield Glendale at home tonight at 6:00, and then on Tuesday, they travel over to Webster Groves to play the Statesmen at 4:30.