By contributing writers Nathan Santos (‘28) and Gemma Ricciardiello (‘28)

At Jamesville-Dewitt High School, the annual Coaches vs Cancer Soccer Game, which helps raise awareness of ovarian cancer by selling t-shirts to raise money for charity, took place on Oct. 9 against Fowler High School. This year, the junior varsity and boys varsity soccer teams raised $10,117 by selling T-shirts. 

Senior Naif Aonaif, a forward and midfielder, scored the first goal to start off the game against Fowler High School on Oct. 9. “We beat Fowler 3-0 this year, and also beat them last year 4-1,” said Naif. Naif also thinks that the team could have had better communication with each other but overall thinks they played well. 

Senior Muj Cherif, a defensive midfielder, said, “We played them last year twice, we won both. But I feel like this year we did better against them than we did last year.” Cherif said they were dangerous on offense while attacking, but defensively, they didn’t do as well as they should have done. Cherif said that the team needs to improve on defense. 

Senior Aydin Ipek, who is a midfielder, said that, “playing Fowler is always a good battle but we always come out on top, and we were aggressive, and fought hard.” Aydin also agrees with Naif that their team could use some improvement on their communication.   

 Senior Sabah Ghanim, who was in the stands that night, said, “The crowd was very energetic, we were definitely passionate about the game and very interested to see who J-D soccer was that night and they didn’t disappoint.” He said the people who definitely stood out were senior Bekzod Abdusattorov and Aonaif by scoring goals and by putting the team in a good spot to win the game. Another person who he said stood out was senior Jisan Lamichhane, who showed good leadership defensively and offensively that helped make a difference.

Junior Ayman El-Zammar, who is a midfielder, thinks they played a good game but some of their strikers could have passed the ball out wide. Sophomore Luke Austin said, “The game was pretty good and the student section was pretty hyped every single goal we scored.” Ausin said the player that stood out to him was Naif, from the goal he scored for J-D.

Sophomore Nathan Podkaminer said the game was a good game to watch. Podkaminer said the player that stood out to him the most was Bekzod Abdusattrov. Podkaminer said Abdusattrov was making things work on offence and helping the team. Podkaminer commented that the team was clicking, and that is what made them win.