Herndon Boys Soccer Makes History

The Herndon area has experienced many achievements and changes over the past 100 years, but one thing it had never witnessed was its beloved high school soccer team going undefeated. The 2011 boys varsity squad had an opportunity to change that Wednesday night as it hosted the Langley Saxons in the last game of the regular season.

As Yogi Berra once said, “It was Déjà vu all over again,” when Herndon (12-0-1) found itself behind the eight ball as it did the previous night against Oakton. The Hornets trailed Langley (10-2-1) 2-1 with just 1:30 left in the regulation. But the ever-reliable Patrick McLaughlin called for a pass from Raleigh McKenzie and one-timed the ball past the Saxon keeper to tie the game and make history, as the Hornets completed its undefeated season in thrilling fashion. 

“That felt great, especially coming from my main man [McKenzie] with the assist, because it’s been happening my whole high school career,” McLaughlin said. “He got up in the air, gave me that flick and I sealed the deal. I was not going to let myself miss that one.”

The Saxons dominated the first half of play and rarely allowed the Hornets within 25 yards of the net. Saxon sophomore Justin Galiani headed the ball inside the far post to put Langley up early, 1-0 with 26:38 left in the opening half.

McKenzie, Chris Czerwinski, Alex Bednarek and Bryant Fernandez fought with heart and might to keep the Saxons outside the 18-yard-box while McLaughlin and EK Korvah hustled to try to find scoring opportunities.

Unfortunately, Langley struck again late in the half to go up 2-0 and put Herndon’s hopeful perfect season in jeopardy. Hornet coach Sean Lanigan did a great job of strategizing during halftime as his team came out reinvigorated in the second half and stole the momentum. Fernandez, Same Eaddy and Peter Sullivan controlled the tempo at midfield with precision give-and-go passing to push it up to their strikers.

“We’ve come back a lot this season,” Fernandez said. “We just put all of our heart into it.”

The back seven stopped the heavy penetration from Langley, allowing the team to switch focus to its offensive attack. However, time became a factor with just 11:29 left in he match when suddenly Salah Warid found some space inside the box and ripped one into the back of the net for Herndon to keep hope alive.

“I kept replaying back in my head, ‘we can’t lose, we’ve come too far,’” Warid said. “I had to keep my team back in there. I love my team.”

The clock ran down to 1:30 and McLaughlin saved the day and the hornets’ undefeated season with a spectacular comeback. The game did continue into overtime but the period went scoreless and remained tied, 2-2.

McKenzie has had a spectacular year in both basketball and soccer and feels proud of the effort he and his teammates give each day.

“It’s the little things. You don’t want to feel bad because you didn’t hustle hard that one time,” McKenzie said. “Coach wanted to sit me out and rest my legs but I was like ‘Coach, I want to leave it all out on the field.’ My whole life [Patrick and I] have known each other, have that chemistry and it worked out in the end. We weren’t going to have the fans see us have a loss.”

Czerwinski had what was probably his best game of the season and said he remained confident his team would make it happen.

“I believe in my boys and I told you we were going to tie it up,” Czerwinski said. “Sometimes you say that to keep your hopes up, but I knew we could come back.”

Lanigan looked relaxed after the game and could finally breathe that sigh of relief he had been holding in for the last week.

“It’s surreal right now and my head is just spinning. Just how the boys played in the second half and responded really shows a lot of character,” he said. “The ‘Cardiac kids’ just didn’t stop. They believed in themselves. They deserved it and hats off to the kids.”

Herndon will host the first two rounds of the Concorde tournament beginning May 16 - Time TBA.