Jordan-Matthews’ boys’ soccer team hasn’t lost a conference game since falling to Seaforth, 3-0, on Sept. 20, 2023.
A year and change later, Seaforth came close to slaying the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference giant again. The Hawks held Jordan-Matthews scoreless in the first half, took them out of their style of play, broke through for multiple clean looks at the goal and even survived a long stretch without their starting goalkeeper on Sept. 25.
But after all of that, the Jets still prevailed, 1-0. They won their seventh consecutive game and moved to 9-4 overall and 5-0 in conference play, which includes a 5-0 destruction of second-place Southeast Alamance on Sept. 18.
And funny enough, Jordan-Matthews doesn’t even consider itself much of a giant this year at all.
Despite what the record says, the Jets say they’re “rebuilding”, and considering that they’re returning three starters from last year’s team, they’re right. The thing is, their rebuild isn’t like what a small-market NBA team says it is when its squad full of young and underdeveloped talent doesn’t work out.
With a young and relatively inexperienced roster, the Jets are still winning games — even if they’re being pushed to the brink.
Jordan-Matthews moved to 4-2 in games decided by two or less goals this season after its latest win over Seaforth.
After losing the first two games of the season in such a manner (2-0 loss to Ragsdale and a 1-0 loss to Franklin Academy), the Jets have won four straight close games as such.
“Patience, composure and trusting each other,” Jordan-Matthews coach Paul Cuadros said about what’s behind the Jets’ ability to win tight contests. “We work a lot on guys working together so that nobody’s doing it alone. There’s always going to be somebody that’s going to help.”
Coming into this season, one of the biggest differences from last year’s team to this year’s squad was the team’s cohesiveness. The young guys didn’t know how to play with the older guys, and for the older guys, it was an adjustment playing with new teammates after competing alongside players from last season’s team for years.
Last year, the togetherness showed on the scoreboard. Following the aforementioned loss to Seaforth, the Jets rolled off seven clean sheets in a row and won the remaining eight conference games by an average margin of 5.6 goals.
With the exception of a few games, the 2024 Jets aren’t putting teams away like that, but they’re still winning, nonetheless. Also, the Jordan-Matthews isn’t even on the level it could be on by the end of the season.
“To this day we’re still improving,” senior captain Francisco Ibarra said. “We’re still connecting more, and we’re still training.”
Said Ibarra, “Even though it’s a new team, everybody’s stepping up, and the games have been more difficult due to losing a lot of players. But, I feel like everybody has heart to play and everybody’s really putting in the effort.”
As much as the collective effort and improvement shown by the new faces this season has lifted Jordan-Matthews to a successful rebuilding year, the few older players have done their fair share of upholding the program’s winning standard.
The captains, Ibarra, senior Emir Vargas, sophomore Andre Tepile and senior goalkeeper Angelo Vera, have been the glue with holding their teammates accountable for mistakes and keeping them focused by always being around.
“What’s really helped us is communication with us captains and players in the games,” Vera, who has made plenty of big saves this season, said. “When they make a mistake, we tell them, and they fix it. After school, we hang out, or when there’s no practice, let’s say Saturday or Friday, we come down here or to Bray Park to just kick and practice.”
It also helps that some of the more experienced guys don’t just simply know about the Jordan-Matthews standard that Cuadros has built over two decades — some grew up in it before stepping foot on the high school campus.
Vera’s brother, Axel, played for the Jets in 2018, and Ibarra’s brothers Eliot and Alexis were also Jets just a few years ago. Ibarra also had multiple uncles on the 2004 state championship team.
“Especially seeing my brother play here, looking up to them and looking up to my uncles, seeing the things they earned for the school, the things they did for the school and the soccer team, it really pushed me,” Ibarra said.
This year’s team isn’t as similar to the past as it may have hoped for, but keeping the winning tradition alive in a down year is a sign that Los Jets aren’t landing anytime soon.
