By Rocco Garcia

The Ponte Vedra High School boys soccer team finished 2024 with a very impressive 7-2 record and having high hopes to finish the remainder of the season and having a high seed in the FHSAA Playoffs. The Sharks took on the 2-10 St. Augustine Yellow Jackets on Jan. 6 with the first of three games that same week. The Sharks dominated the whole game with senior striker, Thomas Arndt, scoring, once again, another hat trick for the Sharks. The Shark defense played amazing once again highlighting junior midfielder, Brayden Sandoval, having an impressive 16 steals and junior keeper, Keegan Cornett only allowing one goal for the night. The boys ended the night victorious with the final score being 4-1.

            The boys took their talent to a clay county school to take on the 2-5-2 Orange Park Raiders. The Sharks started off the game swinging with Arndt scoring another hat trick! Senior right wing, Stanley Bishop, assisted two of Arndt’s goals and junior center mid, Connor Smith, scored a goal on his own and along with junior defense, Cristiano Chaves, scoring another goal. The Sharks defense played lights out again with the boys only allowing one goal highlighting senior defender, Matt Brown, and junior mid fielder, Jake Romano, having countless steals guiding the sharks to an outstanding final score to 8-1.

            The Sharks brought their talent back home to take on the Bishop Kenney Crusaders for a very emotional senior night on Jan. 9. Seniors walked with their family and relatives sharing what their future may hold and their passions. Senior mid fielder Gibran Baz and Nick Serino, strikers Arndt and Bishop, defense Brown and Foster Keebaugh, keeper Nick Taylor, and forward Noah Theisen all played one of their last home games of their career at PVHS. The boys didn’t let the emotion get to their feelings, they had plans to win this game in dominate fashion. The Sharks began the game awfully slow for the first half. Taylor started the game for the first couple of minutes having two saves and no goals allowed until Cornett came back into the net. The boys defense was lights out once again, not allowing much pressure for Cornett and Taylor. While on the other side, the offense was a little slow, Ardnt had plenty of chances at goal but the Crusader keeper was not letting anything go by. The score going into half was tied at zero but the Sharks wouldn’t let that slide for senior night. The boys came out of the half fast with Romano scoring the first goal of the game off of a rebound from the keeper. Just following that, junior mid fielder, Nick Churchill, scored on a through ball and took it himself to bring the sharks to a 2-0 lead. Near the half way point of the second period, Theisen was fouled in the penalty box and forced a penalty kick. Sandoval took the kick for Theisen and scored widening the gap making the score 3-0. But sadly, in garbage time, the Crusaders scored off a penalty kick concluding the game at 3-1 in favor of the Sharks. The boys went undefeated in the week making an impressive record stand at 10-2.

Pictured: Marcus Warren (11) doing the National Anthem along with his teammates. Photographed by Alex Fenney @fenneysflics