SSFS ends dream season

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005

by John Y. Wehmueller

Staff Writer

When the final whistle blew Saturday afternoon at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, it sealed perfection. The Sandy Spring Friends boys soccer team beat St. Anselm’s Abbey, 2-0, in the final of the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference tournament, in the process finishing off an unblemished, 18-0-0 season.

‘‘There’s no getting around the fact that an 18-0-0 season is a dream season for any program at any level,” coach Eduardo Polon said. ‘‘It’s an accomplishment that I think will be recognized for a long time. ... It’s hard to put into words. You dream of the perfect season.”

If there is such a thing, it was the Wildebeest in 2005. They outscored their opponents by a total score of 91-5. By Polon’s count, 15 school or program records fell this fall, team and individual. Among them were wins in a season (18, the most by a Sandy Spring Friends team in any sport); goals in a season and a career (senior Chad Henry’s 37 and 82, respectively); assists in a season and a career (senior Owen Haddow’s 26 and 51, respectively); and goals-against average (freshman goalie Sam Schneider’s 0.29).

Henry’s older brother, Sergio, was a senior captain on the 1999 Sandy Spring team that went 16-1-1 and captured both the regular-season and tournament titles in the PVAC. Two of Polon’s assistant coaches were also on that team.

This team eclipsed even those accomplishments.

‘‘It was really neat to have people who have lived through the 10 years I’ve been at the school with me in different ways,” Polon said. ‘‘And there’s a beautiful parallel between the 1999 team and this one, with Chad and his older brother.”

The Wildebeest won all 11 PVAC regular-season games and easily claimed the tournament’s No. 1 seed. In the midweek semifinals, Sandy Spring had to contend with a defensively minded Jewish Day School, which scored to make it 2-1 midway through the second half. But the Wildebeest scored three goals in less than 10 minutes to make it a 5-1 final.

In Saturday’s championship game, Sandy Spring again jumped out to a 2-0 halftime advantage. Polon said the wind was a factor, and the Wildebeest had to play into it in the second half. But the two goals stood up.

‘‘The wind was almost like a third opponent,” Polon said. ‘‘In the first 10 minutes of the second half, they threw the proverbial kitchen sink at us; the guys bent, but didn’t break.”

In the process, Sandy Spring recorded its 12th shutout of the season.