Oct 23, the 2024-2025 boys soccer team played their last game of season suffering a first-round WPIAL playoff loss in a heartbreaking loss in the last seconds of the game against North Hills. While the team was greatly distraught after this loss, this season was nothing short of a legacy.
The 5th-seed Knights were set to play against the 12th-seeded North Hills team. With no teams in the playoffs being easy matchups, the Knights were in for a hard matchup. In the first half of the match-up, Daniel Maddock opened the scoring with a breakaway goal. This lead was short-lived after a North Hills penalty kick was given up even after a near save from goalie Ryan Dooen. North Hills took this momentum and scored another goal making the game 2-1. At halftime Knights coach Scott Schuchert hyped up the boys along with some words from captain Ryan Schiller.
After getting the boys fired up, the Knights went out for the second half and put on the pressure. Soon after Daniel Maddock tucked away his second goal of the night from a free kick making the game even. As the game drew to a close and it looked like it was going to overtime, tragedy struck at the last second for the Knights. North Hills got the ball the Norwin’s 18-yard line and shot, but Dooen made a finger-tip save slowing the ball down as it rolled toward the goal. Then defenders Chase Molinaro, and Ryan Schiller came back for a clearance where Molinaro hit the ball and unfortunately hit off of Schiller and went into the Knights net.
While the Knights playoff hopes were ended early, that does not change the legacy that these seniors left behind with this season and their high school careers. This senior class of boys captured the school’s only WPIAL title in program history, in addition to lots of Section wins and WPIAL wins. The impact that the team this year and the seniors that were on it will be felt throughout many of the years to come in the program. The success and hard work that the team put in has led to more and more kids of the next generation trying soccer and making their way eventually to the high school team. This year’s seniors have laid the framework for the coming years of players too with a culture of hard work and grit.
As these seniors end their high school careers they can know that the team in the future is in good hands with the kids that they mentored and coached up to the point they are at now. Having faced losses and wins, highs and lows, the Norwin Boys Soccer Class of 2025 left a legacy like no other behind. Having faced every challenge this season with all they have the 2024-2025 boys soccer season comes to an end.
When asking senior captain Ryan Schiller what he had to say to the underclassmen for the coming seasons he responded accordingly. “So what, now what,” Ryan Schiller said.
