St. Luke's Boys Soccer Downs Hopkins in FAA Clash

Goals from Phil Platek ‘20, Julien Velez ‘20, and a brace from Jack Kavan ‘21 earned the St. Luke’s Boys Varsity Soccer team an impressive victory over reigning FAA champions Hopkins School on Tuesday, September 24.

In a rematch of last year’s final, the Storm started brightly on their home turf and dominated the early exchanges. Kavan continued his fine start to the season, scoring his sixth goal in four games in the 14th minute after some great work by Micheal Riley ‘22. Just two minutes later, Platek scored a great individual goal that followed a sublime pass by Des Pratt ‘21. Platek’s second goal in two games gave SLS a 2-0 lead.

St. Luke’s extended its lead just after the hour mark, as Kavan scored his seventh of the season to make it 3-0 before Hopkins pulled a goal back with twenty-seven minutes to play.

The Storm continued to play its attractive style of soccer and restored its three-goal advantage when Velez headed home from a Bear Crystal ‘20 free-kick in the 77th minute. The Hilltoppers made it 4-2 very late in the game, but never threatened to overcome the deficit.

Head Coach Ryan was thrilled with his team’s performance: “Overall, I thought we were the better team and attacked very well. We were clinical in front of goal, but also defended well throughout the game.”

With the result, the Storm improves to 3-1-1 and 2-0 in FAA play. Fairhurst hopes his side will continue its strong start to the season. “We have to take it one game at a time. If we want to make the New England tournament again this year, we have to get a result against tough teams like Canterbury.”

The Storm hosts Canterbury on Thursday, September 26, at 4:45pm.