Coming into Episcopal’s final IAC regular season game of the year, the Maroon’s season had been nothing short of phenomenal. Once again, Episcopal made it through an entire IAC regular season without a loss, but it wasn’t easy. They have had to fight off most opponents, only winning three games all year by two or more goals, and finished the season only having tied three games all year.

This team, even dating back to last year, has been truly unstoppable.

Thus, with so much on the line in Tuesday afternoon’s regular season finale against Georgetown Prep, Episcopal started off scorching hot on all cylinders, and ended up beating Prep 3-0. In the second minute of the game, Soloman Thomas made a great cut down the left side of the field and crossed a great ball that led to a scramble, each team trying to gain possession, until all of a sudden Trevor Bobola got the rebound and fired back a shot that went right past Prep’s goalkeeper, Chris Kohlenburger, giving Episcopal the lead 1-0.

“It is so much more difficult if you are chasing a game. Last week, we were playing Landon and gave up a quick goal in the 13th minute and Landon is a difficult team defensively and so all of a sudden we’re chasing the game,” said Episcopal head coach Rick Wilcox.

The Maroon continued to keep their intensity up the entire game at a very impressively high level. The midfielders and forward really helped keep Episcopal on top with their aggressiveness and great passing. Shepard Chalkley, Alex Smith, Dominique Badji, and Arnaud Adala Moto all stepped up huge for Episcopal. As the half continued, Episcopal made it very tough for Georgetown Prep to get anything going. Episcopal had multiple men always around Prep’s go-to scorers, Brian Ayers and Marcus Salandy, and harassed their key midfield distributor, Nat Eggleston.

Episcopal was able to strike again before the first half was over off one arguably one of the best goals of the year. Soloman Thomas got the ball at least 40 yards away from the goal with no one around him; he stepped up and shot a perfectly placed ball then went right into the upper right corner of the goal, over the outstretched hand of a diving Kohlenburger, to give Episcopal a 2-0 lead that the Maroon would take into halftime.

“We have a very focused group this year, and we have had very few collective letdowns as a team. We just came out flying, we played exceptionally well for about 7-8 minutes, but then I thought we took our foots off the gas a little bit too much in the second half and let them stay in the game, but we got it back in the last ten minutes of the first half and that’s when we scored that second goal,” said Wilcox.

As the second half was underway, Prep came out with much more intensity and fire and did not give up anything cheap early; however, the very stingy defense of Episcopal, led by Woody Dewing and David Kagulu-Kalema, made it hard for Prep to get anything going as well. As both defenses stepped up their play, both offenses were stifled. Prep’s quick forward Marcus Salandy had some good runs for the Little Hoyas but could not convert, while Episcopal’s chances were usually cleared by Niall Cochrane or Matt Smith.

Said Wilcox on his team’s performance this season overall, “Looking at the whole season they have been outstanding. We have been in some very tough matches. This is the first match we have won by more than two goals since the second week of September. This team is very uncomfortable with the idea of losing, and we have won some games coming from behind, and that’s when you see the best of this team.”

The score would stay at 2-0 for the majority of the second half until a foul was called in their box by Georgetown Prep in the 57th minute. Alex Smith delivered the third and final goal to make any comeback opportunity by Prep nonexistent as Episcopal finished off the Little Hoyas, winning 3-0.

Said the senior captain Alex Smith after the game on why his team can stay so close and tight throughout a season, “Because we’re a boarding school, I think that is definitely an advantage because the team chemistry is just unbelievable. From the beginning of the season we have been going hard in practice and pushing each other to get better and its translated into a lot of success onto the field.”

With a team like Episcopal being so successful in a conference that is not that different from the WCAC, it was interesting to hear what the Episcopal coach had to say about how a matchup of them and Gonzaga or DeMatha in soccer.

Said Wilcox, “It’s just hard for us to schedule against those teams because their regular season starts August 25th and our preseason starts August 31st so it’s always been difficult to schedule those games. Last year we beat Paul IV twice, and they had a good team. I saw the Good Counsel vs. Paul IV game, and Good Counsel is very good. They have some special players. Looking at their conference, our conference and even the top of the MAC, I think there was a lot of parody this year. All the top teams are together. It’s too bad there is not a city-wide championship.”

Smith later said when talking about DeMatha and Gonzaga and how Episcopal stacks up with them, “Those are some great teams who are really talented, and are doing great things in their respective conferences, but I know we can compete with anybody right now, and on any given day we can beat anybody.”