Oct 11, 2016 2 min read

BELLE VERNON – Patience, hard work and gain experience.

Those were three things Belle Vernon boys soccer coach John Kerekes preached to the current senior players as they entered high school.

This senior class grew together, and thanks to Belle Vernon’s 8-1 win over Albert Gallatin Tuesday night, they will be remembered as the leaders of the 2016 Section 3-AAA champions.

Three of the seniors – midfielder Evan Brown, defender Jared Guess, and defender Brennan Morgan – are four-year starters.

“This feels amazing,” Brown said. “To see the team really pick it up this year, it’s great.”

Guess shared those feelings.

“This means a lot and I feel as if we got progressively better each year,” he said. “It means a lot to do it our senior year and doing it our senior year is the best way to do it.”

As freshmen, this senior class went 7-10 followed by a 6-8-2 season as sophomores and 10-6 last season.

“This feels great because we started at the bottom and we worked our way to get to this point,” he said. “And it feels great.”

The outcome was never in doubt as senior Tyler Seliga scored 27 seconds into the match and the Leopards never looked back. Seliga scored his second goal of the match with 30:27 to play in the half, and the goal would end up being the game winner.

Brown scored with 22:08 to play in the half and Morgan added a goal with 8:30 to play before intermission to give the Leopards a 4-0 lead.

Nate Bricker scored for Albert Gallatin with 8:06 left in the half to trim the BVA lead to 4-1 at the half.

Jared Guess extended the lead to 5-1 with 35:41 to play before Logan Perez added a pair of goals and Maverick Selvoski closed out the scoring.

After giving Brown, Guess, and Morgan the chance to speak, Kerekes shared his thoughts moments after the team emptied a water cooler on him.

“This is all about them,” he said pointing to the team. “These seniors, and the whole team, deserve this.”

BVA (12-2, 9-1) is at highly touted Thomas Jefferson today in an exhibition match.