Tonight, the Bruins tested their mettle as they played against Hickman High School and Timberland High School in the Jamboree held here. Each team scrimmaged, playing a friendly match against one another. HHS and THS played first, ending as a 1-1 tie. Next, Rock Bridge played against HHS with a 1-0 victory for RBHS. RBHS and THS played last with no team able to score against each other.

Although the RBHS boys won their first game, Coach Nichols admonished them to show better communication on the field. Senior Cooper Smith played central midfielder and was one of the team captains during the game. He noticed the effect in the team caused by the seniors graduating last year but still saw the potential in the team.

“It was pretty hard losing about 11 seniors last year, but I think t

he seniors we have now have the experience and the juniors are really starting to step up,” Smith said. “I hope that we can all do really well later in the season.”

Not only did Smith see the changes the team was making to become more unified, but senior Jacob Kovarik who played striker and winger also knew what needed to happen to see improvement. Kovarik said seniors graduating every year is to be expected.

“Seniors leave, new people step up. It happens every year. I think all of our talent was replaced, so we can do what we need to do,” Kovarik said. “It’s always a challenge at the beginning of the year because we don’t know each other well enough yet and I don’t think we will until later on in the season.”

Although the team didn’t lose the matches, Kovarik sees room for improvement and knows the team can do better in the future.

“We didn’t meet our own expectations tonight,” Kovarik said. “It’s evident there is a lot of work to be done, but I know that we can get it done.”

By Justin Sutherland