Masuk Free Press

The Masuk boys soccer team has had great success and losses in previous seasons, but there has never been a year quite like 2025 for the Panthers.

The boys were looking to start off strong with three new captains: Cristiano Rivera, Cash Dewey and Matteo Iacono. Though the competition would be hard, there was no reason to doubt the ability of Masuk’s team. That hope for the season quickly diminished at the beginning of the year after the Bethel game on Sept. 4.

“We started the season off with a lot of injuries…it was really bad against Bethel, three injuries in that game,” said senior Justin Demarco. “After that, more injuries started coming.”

Captain Cristiano Rivera was one of the players who was injured that night, coming off the field with a broken collarbone. The team’s morale was declining, seeing numerous players come off the field indefinitely, but it was early, so they had to keep their heads high for upcoming games.

“I was one of many who were injured. I think half the team was injured at one point,” said senior Jackson Zylick. “I definitely think it affected us because basically almost all of our starters got injured and we had to play with a couple of underclassmen.”

The team is composed of a whopping 19 seniors, leaving few spots for underclassmen. The reason for such an unusual number is due to some players getting on the varsity team only for their senior year. “Jacob Lewis, Jonathan Diker, Adam Briggs, Logan Simmons, Jackson Zylick, and Davi Mallard are all new to varsity,” said senior Sanjit Selvaraju.

After the Bethel game, the boys went on to have a record composed of four wins, three ties and six losses. Though they were still able to beat some of their opponents, their win percentage after that pivotal game is only 30%.

On top of their record, another problem that seemed to arise was an attitude issue with the team, where many stopped showing up on time and didn’t have much respect for their superiors. Their coach, Jarrod Schulz, has made it a point to try to fix the boys’ outlook on the season. After many attempts at trying to get everyone to show up to practices on time and listen to leaders, Schulz decided it was time for a fourth captain.

Junior Jack Zurich was appointed the captain spot at one of their pasta parties, which is a team dinner the night before a game. The hope with this move was to get the team motivated with a new perspective on leadership. “I’m grateful that Jack’s been appointed captain,” said Demarco. “He’s going to be a great leader for us; he has the mindset there, and that’s what we need on this team.”

At the point in the season where Jack was given the new role, players started to come back from their injuries and were fueled by the excitement for their pink night, which is a night dedicated to the Think Pink Monroe organization, which helps fundraise for families dealing with breast cancer. They were also excited for their senior night, which was the following game.

There was still a worry weighing on the player’s minds of if their soccer careers would end after the regular season. “I had no idea if we would make SWCs or not,” said senior Joaquim Torre.

In order to make it into the conference tournament, teams need to be among the top eight of fourteen spots total. They weren’t ranked high enough to be guaranteed a spot, so it was important that they try to win their next four games. Unfortunately, they lost on Tuesday night, their pink game, which meant that they needed to either tie or win on their senior night to have a chance to be in the SWC tournament. “Hopefully we win,” said Selvaraju. “But I don’t think so.”

Much to some of their surprise, Masuk was up 2-0 in the second half of their senior night against New Milford. Although New Milford’s boys soccer team ended up tying the game in the end, Masuk’s coach, Jarrod Schulz, complimented the boys. “After the game, coach said that the energy and level were different,” said Demarco. “He said that the New Milford coach told him we were a very good team and that we had a lot to come for us if we kept playing like that.”

The game after senior night, the boys traveled to Brookfield and won 2-0, securing an 8th-place spot in the SWC conference. The only way for them to keep that spot was for them to win their game against Joel Barlow, which they did on Oct.16.

“We got everyone hyped up. We had a lot of pasta parties to get us together and to help us win against Barlow.” said junior and new captain Jack Zurich.

On Monday, Oct. 20, they played the 2nd place team, Bethel, which ended in a hard 4-0 loss for the Panthers. Since they lost, they were eliminated from the SWC tournament and had to wait for the state tournament to play other teams. The dates for the tournament have not been released yet.

With loss, injuries and hopes shot down, the 2025-2026 season for Masuk Boys Soccer will go down in history for its infamy. Though devastated, the season ended up rising past what most expected.

“The season was pretty rough, but I’m proud of how far the team has gone.” said senior Logan Simmons.