On a cold and blustery Wednesday afternoon, the boys’ soccer team closed their regular season with an 8-2 win over Solomon Schechter in the seniors’ last game on Fitch Field.

The Bears dropped the Lions earlier this season by a score of 8-1 and the narrative remained the same early on. Aidan Mega got the scoring started less than six minutes in when he made his way up from the backfield to blast home a pass from John Chang. Less than two minutes later, Chang’s relentless hustle regained possession for the Brook in Schechter’s last third, setting the stage for a Mo Romeus shot that bounced off the keeper and onto the waiting foot of Jai Narain for a 2-0 lead. With 17:24 left in the half, Romeus deftly chipped a ball over the keeper’s head after receiving a perfect pass from Brandon Gicquel.

With a 3-0 lead in hand, the Bears came out of the half with a palpable lack of energy. The Lions seized on it and clawed back within 3-2 with 28:19 remaining. The visitors nearly equalized in the ensuing minutes and remained in the hunt until Narain finally gave the Bears some breathing room with 11:33 left when the senior squeezed a volley between the keeper and the near post to push the Bear lead back to 4-2. The strike not only ended the Lions’ comeback bid, but ushered in a flurry of offense in the game’s final minutes.

Just over a minute later, Romeus carried a pass from Narain nearly to the six-yard box before driving it into the left side netting. 5-2. With 3:43 remaining Narain extended the advantage to 6-2 when he neatly touched an Ian Blunt assist past the charging keeper to complete his third hat trick of the season and give him 19 scores on the season, just two off of Robbie Marvin’s 1994 school record. Romeus completed his own hat trick 42 seconds later when he hammered home a Mega pass from just behind the penalty spot. Mega ended the onslaught with a goal on a header just before the final buzzer.

The win closed the team’s PSAA record at 8-2-2 to earn the #3 seed in next week’s playoffs. The Bears shared an identical record with LuHi but lost the #2 seed on the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Bears open the postseason on Monday afternoon in a match-up vs. #2 Heschel in the PSAA quarterfinals at Randall’s Island Field #62.

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