The 2024-2025 Fresno Christian boys soccer season concludes. After a season filled with wins and losses the boys soccer record ended at four wins and thirteen losses in the combination of pre-season and regular season games.
Theron Myers is a senior at Fresno Christian who has played goalie for the varsity boys soccer team all of high school, Myers has played soccer since preschool, ever since he was old enough to sign up. While being a goalie Myers had the rare opportunity to score one goal while playing forward for a game. With 121 saves throughout his senior season, Myers retires his jersey #1 here at FCS, with hope of playing soccer in college somewhere down south.
“I feel good about my performance, but I know I could have done more to prevent goals, there’s always room for improvement,” Myers says, “Back in elementary school, no one wanted to play goalie, so I stepped up-and I never stopped.”
Jacob Bynum, completed his second year as a head coach with the help of his assistant coaches Waseem Akhtar, Jakob Rieker, and Zach Aguirre. Bynum was a key component to the players progression throughout this season. Bynum started his soccer career at age three and his enthusiasm for the sport has only grown.
Continuing his love for soccer, Bynum wanted to share what he had learned as a soccer player as well as an individual to those younger than himself. Bynum attended Fresno Christian from K-12, he wanted to be able to give back to the school that gave him so much and that’s why he chose to coach the boys soccer team. Bynum plans to coach the ‘25-26 season and prepares for the loss of six senior players.
”The overall experience this year was good, we had many ups and downs but still made lots of progress from the start to the finish of the season,” Bynum said, “My favorite moment of this year had to be our senior night, where we ended up down 1-0 at halftime to Minarets and then ended up coming back and winning 4-1.”
The team consists of six seniors, four juniors, six sophomores, and three freshmen, overall having 17 players. Each player contributed to the team in different ways. The seniors contribution and leadership to the team was honored on Feb,7.
During senior night, Ohan Topjian accomplished a difficult skill known as the hat-trick. The hat-trick is a remarkable achievement where a single player scores three goals in one game. Topjian has been playing soccer for as long as he can remember and ends his senior season as a fourth year on varsity. Topjian will forever remember having fun with his childhood friends on their trip to the coast.
“Scoring a hat-trick on my senior night was the highlight of my season, the rush of adrenaline and joy was insurmountable,” Topjian says, “My uncle led me to playing soccer because he played professional soccer for multiple teams at a young age and he was always my role model.”
Samuel Rieker, ‘25, was the top scorer on the team this season with 15 goals. Rieker has been playing soccer for his entire life, and completed his fourth year on varsity at Fresno Christian. Rieker will not be playing soccer after he graduates, so the 2024-2025 season is his final time playing competitively. After being senior captain accompanied by Nathan Bridges and Ohan Topjian, Rieker helped guide his team throughout the season. Rieker ends his senior year after a memorable couple months with his team and coaches filled with gratitude for those who assisted his goals.
“I would say that statistics don’t measure soccer completely and it’s important to recognize the ones who set up the play initially too.” Rieker says, “Most of my goals came from the hard work of others.”
Reiker was an amazing teammate and impacted many of the underclassmen, including Freshman Jackson Sullivan. Sullivan played his first year on varsity after playing soccer every year since he was four years old. Sullivan plans on playing soccer throughout high school, he is excited for opportunities to come in the next few years. This season made Sullivan feel welcomed to the team, and he felt as though everyone included all of the new members.
“High school is a lot more controlled and enjoyable than middle school,” Sullivan says, “my favorite moment has to be assisting Sam’s bike from the corner, it was an amazing goal and to be a part of it is even better.”
Seniors Lucca Deraffaele, Samuel Rieker, Aiden Arroyo, Theron Myers, Nathan Bridges, and Ohan Topjian finish their last season of playing high school soccer. After a long and hard season these players celebrated their last victory together as a team at the senior night against Minarets. These seniors ended their last high school season with a kick!
Bynum says, “Losing seniors always hurts us but that just means we have to work harder as a team to make up for the loss.”
During the game against Caruthers, sickness was spread throughout the team and students who played previous years for the team, still attending high school at Fresno Christian were asked to help and play. These recruited players included Ian Palsgaard, ‘25, Joshua Kubota, ‘25 and Noah Temple, ‘27. This was an unforgettable experience for the team.
As a team 31 goals were scored and 77 points were achieved. With a total of 16 games, seven during season and 9 during pre-season, the team worked well together to conquer what they did.
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To read more from the Feather visit Two Fresno Christian athletic teams make school history or Boys basketball and girls soccer head to state playoffs
