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BETHALTO - Civic Memorial boys soccer coach Derek Jarman took to Twitter calling this year's graduating group "the most successful class in CM soccer history."
"They are everything a coach dreams of," Jarman said after a 6-1 win over Highland on the Eagles' Senior Night.
"When you've got 13 guys who put in the work day one of their freshman year, who show up as much as anyone else including the coaching staff; that's what it takes."
"They're leaders, and that's what it's really all about," Jarman said.
Those 13 seniors graduating in alphabetical order are Joey Aiello, Brock Barrows, Caleb Butler, Bryce Davis, Nick Fiorino, Nolan Holcomb, Ryan Halley, Dylan Hoffmann, Noah Huth, Ethan Miller, Ethan Skiff, Ben Warts, and Brayden Zyung.
"When I say most successful, if you look at the wins from their freshman year all the way through, they've got more than any other class that's walked through those halls, and that's just the icing on the cake," Jarman said.
The ones that have been playing varsity all four years have obtained 68 wins as of Tuesday night. They did so with a shortened sophomore season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jarman was trying not to get emotional but called his seniors "model citizens - kids that I hope my kids grow up to act like."
"If my kids grow up and play soccer like that or as half as good as these guys, we're doing something right in the community."
All the emotions of Senior Night aside, it was still another dominant home display from the Eagles Tuesday night. With the 6-1 scoreline they improve to 18-4 on the season.
Davis did what he does best, score goals. He scored his 11th hat trick this season and now has 47 goals to his name in 2022 alone, 112 total during his career.
Zyung had a couple of goals which brings him up to 11 on the season. He also had a couple of assists against the Bulldogs. He leads the St. Louis region with his 27 assists this year.
Sophomore Tyler Wilson finished up the scoring Tuesday night while Halley started in goal for the Eagles.
"It's Senior Night for these guys, but we want to play two more games on this field because we host Sectionals," Jarman said. "But we have business to take care of to get there."
The Eagles have three regular-season games remaining against Jerseyville, Mater Dei, and Mascoutah; all three of them being on the road.
Their first game of the postseason is against Effingham on Tuesday, October 18th at 4:30 p.m. in Mattoon.
With Mattoon in the No. 4 seed, chances are CM will have to beat the Green Wave on their own field in the Regional Championship game if they want to advance to the Sectionals and play on their home field one more time.
"I hope that's extra motivation to push them to play on this field again. "We're hosting it so we might as well be in the thing," Jarman said.
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