This year, the Potomac School Panthers want to finish the job and win the boys Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference boys soccer tournament.
As they are this fall, the Panthers also were the top seed in the 2023 event as a result of winning the regular-season title, but lost badly, 5-2, to Sidwell Friends in the high-school tourney-championship match.
On Thursday (Oct. 31) at 3 p.m. on their home field, the Panthers will host the 2024 title game, with high hopes of earning the postseason prize.
So far, Potomac School (10-1-5) is 1-0 in this fall’s tourney. It received a first-round bye, then blanked Sidwell, 4-0, in the semifinals behind two goals from senior Marshall Lloyd, with senior goalie Wyatt Pence earning the shutout.
The Panthers last won the MAC tournament in 2022, and have brought home the crown three times in program history.
The semifinal victory was Potomac School’s third win against Sidwell this season, prevailing by 2-1 and 2-0 scores in regular-season matches.
Lloyd and Pence are two of many senior starters for the Panthers. Other leading-scoring seniors are Patrick Ritter, J.P. Sosnitsky, Luke Brittin, Clay Chapman and Colin Cordell. Ritter had a goal in the semifinal and Sosnitsky an assist.
Other seniors are goalie Garrett Hicks and field players Clay Chapman, Adam Bhatti, Ben Muhlendorf and Will Bennett.
Ritter has made a verbal commitment to play at Bowdoin College in Maine and Lloyd the same at Howard University.
Sophomores Luke Swigart, Mateo Nichols, Lawson Watt, Charlie Cillizza and Ege Kirgiz and juniors Ben Scharf and Kaiden Staver are other scoring leaders.
Travis Beauchamp is Potomac School’s first-year head coach and also is an assistant athletic director at the school. Previously, he was Catholic University’s men’s head coach for 17 years, earning Conference Coach of the Year honors three times.
