On Nov 5, the Romeoville High School’s Boys Soccer team places 2nd in State Finals after a tight match against Naperville Central High School, with a final score of 0-1. The team makes history as the first RHS team to be a state finalist in the IESA Class 3A division.

Since summer, the boys soccer team has been practicing non-stop to prepare for their season in August. It all paid off after they won Regionals for the second time on Oct 21, edging Lincoln Way Central out by 4-0. This marks the start of their historic 2022 season.

The team then moved on to Semi-Sectionals on Oct 25 winning against Lockport High School 3-2. The Sectional game against Bloom Township on Oct 28 had to go into penalty kicks to break the 0-0 tie. RHS Boys Soccer won with four penalty kicks over three from Bloom Township. During penalty kicks each team takes turns shooting five goals from the penalty mark, with only the opposing team’s goalkeeper blocking the ball. After that boys soccer won Super-Sectionals against Edwardsville High School 4-1 on Nov 1 putting them in the running for State.

The State Semi-Finals were held on Nov 4. RHS Boys Soccer already made RHS history at this point by making the semi-finals, but they continued their legacy after playing Elmhurst High School and winning 4-3. Naperville Central won 5-0 over Lincolnshire High School.

The next day’s State Finals were met with lots of support from Romeoville Spartans and alumni in the stadiums where the RHS team made runner-up after an intense game against Naperville Central of 0-1. The RHS Boys Soccer team received a police escort and honk out by the town back to the school the moment they enter Romeoville. The school put together an assembly the following Monday to honor the soccer team’s season-long performance and other recent accolades from the school’s marching band, volleyball, track, and theater arts.

The season’s roaster of players produced two All-State players, the most the soccer team has had in an individual season. Team captain Joseph Duarte and goalie Lucas Ortiz are the season’s two All-State players and will have their photos hung up in the main hallway outside the gymnasium. Head Coach Nick Cirrincione also received the Coach of the Year Award.

“Being an individual award like Allstate has been a goal of mine since freshman year. My brother received All-State twice in a row in high school and it was something I wanted to pursue as well…  40+ goals in one season sounds pretty crazy, but when you have an amazing team like I had this year, anything feels possible, which explains our successful run through the State Tournament. An assembled community has started all over again and I’m happy to say my teammates and I were part of this” Duarte said.

“Coming into this season was emotional as it is my last run in a varsity program that I have been invested in since I was a freshman. But I knew that with the amount [of players] we had returning, we had the potential to be something more than a team that has been through the same loss together that I didn’t have to experience alone. I had the privilege of experiencing this with my team” Says Ortiz. “The results [of the final game] don’t show the hard work we put in together as a group, and making it to that stage when not many even knew about Romeoville prior to this match has made our community stronger and hopes to inspire future Spartans that anything is possible”.

Regardless of what the final game outcome was, Romeoville High School is so proud of everything you guys have accomplished. You all made RHS history that any one of us is proud to call ourselves Spartans. You are winners to us!