The boys had a challenging season led by senior captains Mateo Ruperti and Bruno Da Silva. The team is coached by Malden High School English teacher Jeremiah Smith. With an amazing end of the season record of 14-2-2, Malden High-school’s boys varsity team wrapped up for the season with an intense and nail biting game against their biggest rival, the Medford Mustangs.
For the boys, the team is their family. Their bond is like no other, as they always have each other’s backs through thick and thin. Junior Felipe Cypriano stated, “They’re the people [he] mostly [hangs out] with, because they are [like his] family. [He] genuinely [loves] everyone on the team.” The rest of the team agrees with Cypriano’s sentiments as the team can always be seen having a good time together. It is due to this brotherhood that the boys are able to play so well together. Rather than playing just for themselves, the members play for each other.
Although the boys did not win the Greater Boston League title, the team was still happy that they made it to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament. The boys aimed to make their mark in States. On Nov. 11, 2015, MHS faced off against the Andover Golden Warriors. Malden was able to score a total of 6 goals thanks to the efforts of Da Silva, Cypriano, and sophomore Belisson Cius.
The Golden Warriors were only able to answer with 3 goals, which meant that Andover was knocked right out of the competition. Winning the first round of playoffs was a huge deal for the boys. Senior Nicolas Santos confessed how “[he] felt very content with the way the team played together, but [he] knew that the playoffs had just begun and [they] had a lot of hard competition ahead of [them].” This was unfortunately very true as Malden lost to the Mustangs 1-0.
Da Silva was not only captain, but also the leading scorer for this season and the second highest within the past two seasons, amassing a total amount of twenty-five goals and five assists between the two. Da Silva is still stunned at the fact that he has accomplished such a feat in such a short amount of time. Going into the season, his goal was to beat his cousin, former Blue and Gold member and captain of the MHS’ boys soccer team the past two years, Julio Da Silva’s record. Bruno mentioned how “it [was] an amazing feeling. Julio’s record was twelve in our previous season, [so Bruno Da Silva] wanted to get eighteen but to get twenty-five just blew [his] mind.”
Senior Rick Melgar admitted that “[he] really couldn’t believe it. [His] first thought was that, all [his] the years playing for Malden High’s soccer team had flown by. [He] realized how much [he] loved [his] team and [his] city.” The rest of the seniors feel the same way as with the season over, their high school soccer careers were finally over.
The underclassmen and the rest of MHS will dearly miss the graduating seniors, but by the same token, the boys and the whole school look forward to the seasons to come.
