Uncharted Territory

When the Kinnelon boy’s soccer team dropped an improbable game to Mountain Lakes Wednesday afternoon, it was their first conference loss is two years. Moreover, the loss put them at 1-2. When was the last time this team had a losing record? Granted it’s just the third game of the year but unless things change quickly, they may find themselves is a place that hardly anyone on the team can remember; struggling to make the states. Of course, a loss like this could work to the team’s advantage. Listening in to the coach’s post game talk to the team, he was, in affect, challenging his team to look in the mirror and to try to figure out what kind of team they are going to be this year. There are 10 seniors on the squad, many of whom have a lot of playing experience the past year or two, so they know how to win. What they don’t know how to do is to be a team with a losing record. It’s very early in the season and they had to lose a conference game at some point, but did it have to be at home against their biggest rival?

There are degrees of losses. Had this come in the states, it would have left a bitter taste in their collective mouths as disjointed play and missed opportunities cost them the game by a score of 4-3. With many games still to go, Stokes can use this as a means to motivate his team to reach the heights that have visited the past two seasons and where they expected to be this year. Perhaps a game like this will show them that they can’t live off their past accomplishments. If this game does all that, then maybe in the end, it was a good thing.