Bruin Boys Finish Strong, Win Region Title

The ideal scenario for any sports team is to be playing at its best in the final stages of a given season. What happens after that is left in almost equal measures to skill and to chance.

The Broadneck boys soccer team achieved the first objective and left everything on the table in a memorable postseason run that got all the way to the state quarterfinals.

The season reached its highest point on October 29: Wilson Banwell scored twice, Braeden Kelly added a goal and an assist, and Broadneck blanked Annapolis 3-0 to win the 4A East II region championship, the Bruins’ first region title in six years.

“This year was the ultimate goal of a coach. You want your team playing their best at the end of the season,” said Broadneck coach Sean Tettemer. “I'm happy for that and for the players to be able to experience getting the reward for the work that they put in.”

Broadneck’s most recent region title came in 2018, which was before the regional splits and granted entry to the state semifinal round.

After beating Leonardtown on a goal in the game’s final minute in the region semifinals, the Bruins expected to have to travel to Bowie for the championship. But the Bulldogs were stunningly upset in the semifinal round, handing Broadneck a home date with Annapolis for the region title.

Though the game ended with a comfortable win, that was down to the Bruins playing one of their best games of the campaign rather than a gulf in quality between the two teams.

“Annapolis went through something similar to us; they were playing their best at the end of the season and went on a run,” Tettemer said. “It's difficult playing a team that's so familiar with you — that was worrisome playing a team you know so well and that's playing at a very high level. But we came out and played one of our most complete games of the season.”

The road would end one game later for the Bruins, though, as they fell 4-2 at Montgomery Blair in the state quarterfinals. Twice they fell behind, and twice they equalized, but Blair struck twice in the last 10 minutes of the game to advance.

It marked the second straight season Broadneck (11-7) was eliminated by the eventual state champion, a mark both of parity at the top of the 4A classification and Broadneck’s seat at that table.

That loss marked the end of the high school careers for five Broadneck seniors: mainstay starting midfielder Jed Meehan and defender Eli DeWalle, rotation winger Will Epley, reserve midfielder Cooper Thompson and defender Beau Leigh, who was injured in late September against Severna Park and missed the rest of the season.

“Our seniors were tremendous. That’s another gratification you get from coaching, when you see players develop continually over the four years,” Tettemer said. “They're always getting better, always improving, and that was our senior class this year. Even during the season, our seniors were still getting better and improving this game.”

For their efforts on the season, five Bruins were honored at the county or state level. Meehan was named first-team all-county and second team all-state, while Kelly was named second-team all-county and honorable mention all-state. Banwell and T.J. Remson also received second-team all-county honors, while DeWalle was an honorable mention honoree.