The boys’ varsity soccer team is off to another fast start with a 4-1-2 MCAL record, despite suffering heavily from injuries. One of the injured players is Teddy Mauze, the 2012 Player of the Year, who largely contributed to leading Tam to a 3rd consecutive MCAL championship and an NCS championship last year.

Last year after the 2012 season, Mauze committed to Yale for soccer. However, over the summer he suffered from a torn quad while playing for his club team, Marin FC. Mauze and his doctors have decided that an entire season of rest this year is needed in order for his recovery. “I was stoked about playing for Tam as a senior,” Mauze said. “I was devastated to hear the lengthy timeline of my injury.”

With their main goalscorer gone, Tam has had to rethink their offense. “Losing [Mauze] has had a pretty huge impact,” Tam head coach Dustin Nygaard said. Nygaard pointed out that in addition to losing Mauze, several of Tam’s major offensive players graduated last year. “Tesfaye Paine and Julian Melendez are gone so we’ve had to kind of reinvent ourselves,” Nygaard said. “Parker Walls and Lucas Janetos have switched from defensive to offensive roles and have done a really great job.”

On the other side of the field is Tam’s defense led by seniors Jackson Wong and Navid DeLeede. “Our defense remains solid,” Nygaard said. As of October 4th, only 4 goals were scored on Tam’s backfield.

The team has had two MCAL ties this year, one against Redwood (0 – 0) and another against Terra Linda (2 – 2). “They were really hard, emotional games that we felt like we should have won,” said junior Ben Weinswig, who scored both of Tam’s goals against Terra Linda on September 29. “We’re going to have to keep building chemistry as a team as we have been the last few weeks so we can keep winning and stay atop the MCAL standings.”

On October 4, Tam lost its first game of the year against Branson, forfeiting their spot for first place in MCALs. “It was really frustrating,” Weinswig said. “We didn’t perform and played very poorly.”

Tam still has a long season ahead of them including a rematch against Redwood and MCAL and NCS playoffs. In spite of having to watch from the sidelines, Mauze has high hopes for these upcoming games. “We’ve faced some tough competition, but I’m confident in our team’s ability to win matches,” he said. “I cannot wait to see how far we go in playoffs and NCS.”