By Kevin J. Stone, Contributing Writer
NORTHBOROUGH/SOUTHBOROUGH – “Do you want to be that team?”
That was the question Algonquin boys soccer coach Ken Morin asked his team around the middle of this fall season after a 2-2-4 start to the year.
If the team missed the playoffs, it would be the first in recent program history to do so.
The team full of 13 seniors responded by closing out the season with a 10-2-1 run, locking in the 12th seed in the Division I tournament and making it to the finals of the CMADA tournament prior to the MIAA playoffs themselves, where Algonquin lost in the round of 16.
Playoff run featured highlight reel moments
Algonquin’s postseason journey included a highlight-reel goal against Nashoba in the CMADA tournament for sophomore Garrett Burns that drew 13,000 views on Twitter. The clip even got a response from soccer star and sports broadcaster Taylor Twellman.
Then, there was senior Charlie Hynes tying Algonquin’s first round MIAA tournament matchup with Acton-Boxborough in the final seconds of regulation time. He then won the game in double overtime with his second goal of the game.
The season may not have ended the way Algonquin planned. But, after a difficult start, Morin said he was proud of his squad.
“We were really struggling to put a few good performances together in a row, and then I don’t know, we just flipped the switch at some point,” Morin said in a recent interview. “The guys doubled down, started working especially hard in practice, they started believing in the message we were trying to get across.”
Coach values pride, honor
Morin has coached the Algonquin Boys Soccer program in two separate stints for a total of 23 seasons.
Over the years, he has worked to instill a sense of pride and honor in his team.
“As a coach, you can sit back and say ‘Do you want to be that team that breaks the tradition of however many years in a row we’ve been in the tournament?’” he said. “You’ve got to put in the extra work and do it in your own free time and this particular group did that.”
“Whether it was the drive to get better or upholding traditions over the last 40 years, whatever it was, some things happened and they realized how good we could be when the results started to show themselves,” he said of this year’s team.
Now, instead of being remembered for the wrong reasons, the senior class of Drew Bouzan, Conor Hoolahan, Jeremy Strauss, Hynes, Chris Chun, Adarsh Padala, Brian Morissette, Brian Rabideau, Josh Kopstein, Andrew Sedzia, Jack Rotier, Max Deschaine and Ethan Connolly have provided a historic season that may long live in Algonquin soccer lore.
