St. Luke's Boys Soccer: Season Outlook

The St. Luke’s boys varsity soccer team enjoyed a productive preseason and kicked off the 2022 fall campaign with a resounding 9-0 win at home against The Harvey School on Friday, Sept 9.

From start to finish the Storm dominated the game, with hat tricks from Watson Meyer ’24 and Javier Miniuesa ’25, as well as goals from Nikolai Bonwetsch ’24, Peter Lewis ’24, and Gianmarco Pirri ’24. 

Head Coach Ryan Fairhurst was extremely pleased with his team’s performance but knows they have tough matches coming up: “We have some very difficult games at the front end of the schedule, so we have to be prepared. Our second game is against Rye Country Day School, runner-up in the Fairchester Athletic Association (FAA), and then we welcome the New England Class D champions, Wooster School. We know we have to be ready to start the season well.”

Fairhurst has been impressed with the group’s work rate and hopes to challenge for honors this fall: “The players have worked hard throughout preseason. We have seen their progression, starting from day one. They look stronger, quicker, and mentally tougher. Our goals for the season remain consistent: We want to make the FAA final and go as far as possible in the New England Tournament. The players have a number of individual goals, too, including increasing goals and assists, improving technical skills, and working harder in practice to gain more playing time.”

This year’s squad is captained by George Foster ’23 and Mason Pratt ’23. Fairhurst is confident they will guide the group in a productive way: “They both possess excellent leadership skills, which we know they will continue to improve as the season moves forward. We want them to maintain a positive culture around the program.”

There have been a number of standout players during the preseason scrimmages, and Fairhurst is thrilled with the players’ development: “Watson, Matty Schulman ’25, Eli Brody ’24, Nikolai and Javier have been instrumental in the preseason, and we expect this to continue in the regular season. A lot of players have impressed during the first few weeks, but it’s been great to see improvement from Huett Nelson ’24 and Andrew Seel ’24, who have spent time away from St. Luke’s playing in the offseason. Caleb Seiden ‘23 has taken to his new role at center back and looks physically and mentally stronger.”

The Storm put in another top performance against the Wildcats on Thursday, Sept. 15 racing into a 4-0 lead at halftime. Two goals from Javier and one each from Matty and Eli gave St. Luke’s a comfortable advantage which they added to just after the interval when Nikolai added a goal to make it 5-0. 

St. Luke’s has another home game against the Generals on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 4:15pm. Fairhurst knows how he wants his team to play and expects them to implement a certain style of soccer: “We want the players to work hard off the ball, have an increased desire to win the ball back, and maintain a high tempo when in possession.”

For more photos from Boys Soccer please click here