For the first time since 2008, NDA boys’ soccer headed to state. And came home with the silver ball after an exhausting overtime win against Shorewood in their semi-final. 

After last season’s heartbreaking loss in the sectional final to Seymour, the Tritons finally poked through to the state tournament after their 3-1 win over Winnebago Lutheran.

Last year’s loss gave this squad the motivation to push forward and win.

“Last year’s sectional definitely hurt the team, especially the seniors moving on,” junior Adam Brada said. “They were the ones that inspired us this season to push through the next year and come out firing without looking back.”

Sophomore Emmett Lawton was not with the varsity squad last year, but he sees a different passion about this year’s team.

“They clearly set the mindset of being ‘hungry’ for a state title,” Lawton said. “I built off this eagerness to go to state and developed my own hunger for the gold ball.”

Lawton was the team leader in goals and points, with 12 and 32 respectively. 

As with all sports, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to every team. As for boys’ soccer, they started their season in the fall, but moved to the spring.

But still, this team stayed hot in their pursuit to get to state.

“It wasn’t enough to keep us from playing the game we love,” Brada said of the challenges the team faced. “We’ve overcome many things individually, but we still become stronger as one.”

“We made a lot of sacrifices to devote ourselves to the success of this team,” Lawton said. “It’s all worth it as this is a special group of guys.”