After boys’ soccer shut out victory against Hopkins, players were joyful and celebrated the win, preparing for the games ahead.

Coming into the first section game, senior Owen Christiansen said he was sure of the team’s abilities.

“I was confident in my team and thought we could easily win,” Christiansen said. “We worked hard to get here, and now we can keep going in the postseason.”

According to junior Claudy Zua, the team worked both on skills and chemistry leading up to the game.

“We had a lot of practice, talks and team bondings,” Zua said. “We are a very connected team and work well together.”

Christiansen said for the next game, the team needs to focus on basics like passing and shooting.

“We could improve a little bit all around. Things like passing, shooting, dribbling,” Christiansen said. “If we just focus on the little things, we should be good.”

Assistant coach Pat Hartman said the team focused on technique with the ball throughout the game. 

“We practiced moving the ball around a lot,” Hartman said. “A lot of passing and moving the ball around and some quick 1-2 passing.”

According to Hartman, he noticed great communication throughout the game, which is important against an intrusive team like Hopkins.

“The boys moved the ball pretty well,” Hartman said. “This team is fairly aggressive, the Hopkins team, so it’s nice to move the ball around and make the run after you a little, and tire them out.”

Zua said the team started the game off strong with a couple of goals to put pressure on Hopkins and take control of the game.

“We played really well tonight,” Zua said. “We scored a couple goals in the first half, and that really pushed us forward. We didn’t let the opponent take an advantage.”

Park’s next game will be against Minneapolis Washburn at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 at Washburn high school.