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Through the ups and downs of a very tumultuous season in the WCAC, the Gonzaga Purple Eagles accomplished something on Sunday that no team had ever accomplished in the WCAC soccer league before.

A four-peat.

The Eagles knocked off the No. 1 seeded DeMatha Stags for the second time this year, and took home the WCAC championship for the fourth year in a row, winning by a score of 1-0 in front of a large crowd at the Germantown Soccerplex on Sunday afternoon.

“This team had some bumps along the road. It was a rollercoaster this year, but they played with heart and they won the game just on playing with heart. They had to play scrappy, hard-nose soccer and it was a tough thing for them to do. They were playing a much superior opponent, and they rose to the occasion,” said Gonzaga head coach Scott Waller.

It would not take long at all for Gonzaga to throw the knockout punch it needed early. In just the fourth minute, after the senior co-captain Sean Cantarella took the ball deep down the left side-line, deep in DeMatha’s territory, senior midfielder Will Carroll headed his cross right to Gonzaga’s senior forward, Earl Hamilton, who stopped, controlled the ball, and rifled a shot past DeMatha’s senior goalkeeper, Joe Sullivan, giving the Eagles the decisive 1-0 lead they needed.

Said Waller, “It was a great shot, great play, we worked on it all in practice the other day and that was how we wanted to score. They remembered it, came out and did it, and made me very happy. From there we had to change our game plan because DeMatha is such a talented team. We just matched up man to man and tried to back up a little bit.”

After scoring the first goal, it was clear the Eagles did not want to give DeMatha any opportunity to score again, placing an extra man in the box, and making it difficult for the Stags to capitalize off any crossing opportunities for the rest of the half. The Stags were then able to dominate possession; however, they continued to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the Eagles’ defense.

While the Stags kept the pressure very high on the Eagles, Gonzaga’s tough defense answered the call, led by seniors Marcus Henderson, Will Ryan, John Clough and Jamie Reingruber. This backline of defense for the Eagles all had great games, and really frustrated the Stags’ high-powered offense throughout the first half. Not only did Gonzaga’s defense play great, but the Eagles got an outstanding game from their senior goalkeeper, Chris Rubel, who made countless saves and deflections throughout the game. The Eagles would not have survived without the great play from Rubel in goal, whose saves kept Gonzaga on top.

“Those seniors in the back know what it’s like to be in a big game, and they played in a big game, and they played real well,” said Waller on the play of his defense.

“It honestly just came down to Rubel; he just made some great saves. It was probably 65-35 possession, and we just packed it in the back, and Rubel just kept strong. Marcus [Henderson] worked speed on the outside and got the ball. Just good defense basically,” said senior Zach Malonoski on the play of his keeper and defense, as well.

As Gonzaga’s defense powered their team, DeMatha’s defense stepped up for the Stags as well. They made it almost impossible for the Eagles to mount any counterattack, and kept the ball in Gonzaga territory for the majority of the game following that first goal. DeMatha’s defense was led by Eric Hamel, William Gbelee, Jasim Mobaidin and Brian Alvarez.

After scoring the first goal, Gonzaga continued to sit back and fight off every attack made by DeMatha’s talented forwards, Cody Albrecht and Lester Hayes. The two stars were taken out of the game by Gonzaga’s team defense that swallowed up every attempt the DeMatha forwards had to tie the game. The first half would continue to be DeMatha’s furious attempt to get past the extra Gonzaga defenders, but to no avail, as the Eagles defense came up huge, keeping the score, 1-0, as the first half ended.

“We made an effort to markup [Hayes] and they were just sending the ball in a lot and we just played really great. Everyone just played amazing, we probably had the game of our lives, and we won,” said Rubel on his team’s defensive effort.

As the second half began, play continued to be very physical and very demanding, as both teams were giving all they had to help their team win. Yet the Eagles did not give up anything easy, and DeMatha could not find any way to get through the tough Gonzaga defense. As the clock winded down, Rubel made sure nothing was able to be headed by him, and the Stags had no answer for the Eagles who held on to win the WCAC championship game, 1-0.

Coach Waller had nothing but good things to say about his team and DeMatha saying, “[Dematha] is a great team. It’s sad that their whole season gets decided by one game, but we played hard. We played with heart today instead of going out and just beating them.”

Said Waller of what he said to the DeMatha players following the game, “I kept saying one game does not define a whole season, and if you think about it, they’re 19-2, so it’s just kind of sad for them, but they’re a great team, they’re probably still going to be nationally ranked, just don’t let one championship game at the end of the season define your entire season.”

DeMatha’s head coach Dafydd Evans was understandably disappointed following his team’s most-recent playoff loss. “After scoring that first early goal, the simple thing for any team to do is to back it in with numbers, they only crossed our half three times in the second half, and it was just hard to break them down with those numbers in the back. We didn’t get the ball down and play wide, deliver balls in as we use to. The keeper did three wonderful saves, Henderson had a wonderful game as well, just having that extra body in there made it difficult for us to score.”