The Potomac School Panthers have brought home both regular-season and conference-tournament titles in boys soccer.
And now, players and coaches have their eyes on a possible state crown.
The high-school team won the outright regular-season title of the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAC) for the third straight year, earning the top seed in the league tournament. Then the Panthers (11-1-5) won that tourney with a 2-0 record and two shutouts.
Potomac School blanked No. 3 seed St. Andrews in the tournament-championship match after shutting out No. 4 seed and defending champion Sidwell Friends in the semifinals. Both matches were on the Panthers’ home field.
The Panthers did not lose to a MAC opponent during the season, with 10 wins and three ties.
“It has been a good group all season, with a lot of seniors, great leaders,” said first-year Potomac School coach Travis Beauchamp. “Offensively, the players are doing a good job keeping the ball more, playing with a structure, making game decisions on the fly and making adjustments.”
Defensively, the team has seven shutouts and has allowed no more than two goals in any match.
In the MAC-tourney final, juniors Ege Kirgiz and Ben Scharf scored the goals and seniors Patrick Ritter (a three-year captain) and Marshall Lloyd had the assists. In the semifinal win, Lloyd had two goals and Ritter and senior Colin Cordell one each.
Senior J.P. Sosnitsky and sophomore Lawson Watt had assists. Senior goalie Wyatt Pence got both wins.
For the season, Ritter is the top scorer, with 10 goals and eight assists. Sophomore Luke Swigart has seven goals and three assists, Lloyd has five goals and four assists, Scharf has five goals, Cordell and Kirgiz have four each, and Sosnitsky and senior Clay Chapman have two each.
In front of Pence, top defenders have been Sosnitsky, Watt, senior Luke Brittin and sophomore Charlie Cillizza. Other seniors are Garrett Hicks, Will Bennett, Adam Bhatti and Ben Muhlendorf.
“The players were very hungry to be successful,” Beauchamp said. “My thing in the first season was to put players in the best possible positions for them to be successful. They have all been super-coachable.”
Next for Potomac School is the Division I private-school state tournament. The Panthers are the No. 4 seed and have to win three matches to emerge with the state championship for the first time.
