The Grant High School men’s soccer team suffered a close loss Tuesday to West Salem, knocking the Generals out of the second round of the OSAA playoffs.
After the 1-0 loss, many members of the Grant team lay face down on the field. “I just couldn’t believe it was over and everything was gone,” said junior Takumi Hebert. “I just wanted one more game with those seniors. I just wanted to play one more time with them.”
Senior Kento Oudomphong, one of the team’s captains, felt the weight of the game right as it ended. “It just like hit me that I’m never going to play high school soccer again and then once that hit me…I didn’t want to believe it,” he said. “I was hoping that I would wake up from a nightmare.”
With nine seniors on the team, most of the players felt the game was much bigger than just one loss. For them, it was the end of their high school soccer careers. “That whole night…the same few things were just running through my head,” said senior captain Sam Malloch. “Never getting to play Grant soccer again. Never getting to play with the people I’ve played with this season. And then not being able to get back to where we left off last year.”
Head coach Erik Miller said that watching a team he knew could make it further was the hardest part of yesterday’s loss. “It was all there for them to execute,” he said. “We didn’t defend the set play and we had worked on that the day before. Nothing really went our way that game. It’s one of the most talented teams I’ve had, so that’s what makes it so hard to swallow.”
Overall, Miller said the team had a strong season. “The biggest thing that I want to portray is that it’s not a disappointment for the season,” he said. “We won our league undefeated. The only losses we suffered were from the top three teams in state. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t have our best game.”
Grant went into the playoffs ranked third in state after winning the PIL championship with an 11-3-2 record. The team was set on returning to the state finals, as they did last year.
Oudomphong says the expectations that carried over from last year were part of the reason for their downfall. “I think that this season we kind of just thought that it was going to flow as it did last year and I think we thought it was just going to be a breeze,” he says. “But it obviously didn’t turn out that way.”
Hebert says the season was about more than just the scoreboard. “It’s more important that we have the relationship now instead of winning the game,” he said. “I’d rather have the relationship with them than win the game.”
Malloch also recognizes the close bond that the team shares. “The season that we went through, that’s never going to leave,” he said. “We can always think about the brotherhood that we have.”
“That brotherhood will stay with us forever,” said Oudomphong.
As Miller looks ahead, he’s confident that Grant will have another strong team next year. “We’ve got some really good young talent in the JV and JV2 teams, so tryouts will be competitive. We’ll rebuild and we’ll regroup,” he said.
Despite the loss, Miller is proud of the team he has now, knowing that they will continue to be successful even after they’ve stepped off the field.
“They’re a great group to work with,” he said. “They’ve done everything that we’ve ever asked. They’ve given everything – all the effort. That’s all you can ask for at the end of the day.”
