By Claudia Knutsson
For the first time in Great Neck North history, the eighth-grade soccer team, Blazers Girls, completed a full season undefeated. The team dribbled its way to victory from start to finish. The Blazers determination and sportsmanship guided the team through each victory. Emilia Pedersen said, “This year we have played closer and more as a team. We’ve corrected our mistakes from last year and we are more serious and more mature and know we can celebrate with only one big word—‘Undefeated.’”
On Monday, Oct. 26, Great Neck North Middle defeated Clarke 3-0 in the second to last scheduled game of the season. Due to weather conditions, the final game against Mineola was canceled, making the official last game of the season the one against Clark.
Claire Pan, the team’s defense player, said, “The hardest game of this season was the match against Great Neck South Middle school because we just barely tied. We made our last goal at the last second of the game.”
The team’s midfield player Chole Katchis said, “It feels amazing to be undefeated for the first time! I had expected to win some games and lose some games, but we were undefeated, and I saw how amazing our team was and then my expectations for the season got higher.” And her sister Kathleen Katchis also commented, “I thought that we had a very nice season because we got undefeated and because it has never happened before, I was very proud of myself to be part of the team.”
The soccer season is over for the year. Kayla Chan said, “I thought it was a miracle that we were undefeated, but it was definitely our coach that made us a team.”
“We thought that it was time to change, we have never had an undefeated season, but know we are proud of our title, we are U-N-D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D,” said Pedersen.
