Springside Chestnut Hill Academy officially launched its 2025 boys’ soccer season at home last Tuesday afternoon. After a scoreless first half, visiting Father Judge High School built up momentum on the offensive end and surged to a 4-0 victory on Landreth Field.

Last fall, the Blue Devils finished fifth in the Inter-Ac League with a record of 2-7-1 (7-12-3 overall). They graduated seven players from the 2024 roster, including two who were named to the All-Inter-Ac first team. Current senior A.J. Trunfio was a second team pick last fall.

Two of his classmates, Pat Donohue and J.R. Maher, are fourth-year varsity players, and fellow seniors Michael Goff, Owen Hackford, and Chase Meyer are returning varsity players.

One senior who is missing is Cole Carberry, who was the Blue Devils’ starting goalie since he was in eighth grade. He’s not out this fall; his primary sport is lacrosse, which he’ll play at Brown University.

The current juniors returning from 2024 are Beckett Chizmar, Christian DiMarco, Lev Eskin, Read Goodwin, Mike Iacovelli, Micah Matthies, Warren Miller, and Cornelius Stevenson. Also back are three athletes who made the varsity team as freshmen last fall, Jack Balsamo, Sam Link, and Braeden McAneny.

Juniors new to the varsity ranks are Anav Edwards, Matthew Lee, Henry McLaughlin, Ben Sawin, and Jonathan Vargas. Sophomore Matty Talbot will move up as well.

To fill the goaltender position vacated by Carberry are three prospects. Junior James Brenan-Rothschild will have limited availability since he is also a talented placekicker who performs with the SCH football team. The other two candidates are sophomores Ian Kim and Ryan Percy. Kim played the entire game against Judge last Tuesday, while Pearcy was in the cage during a series of scrimmages at Shipley School the previous Friday.

Given the departure of the multiyear stalwarts from last year’s senior class, Blue Devils head coach Brian Zalasky (now going into his 10th season) will spend these early weeks developing new chemistry on the field. With a total of 26 players on the varsity roster, he has a lot of ingredients to experiment with.

SCH held its own during the first half of Tuesday’s opener against Father Judge, although the visiting Crusaders spent more time in the offensive end.

The score remained 0-0 through the first half and into the second, until Judge got on the board with 32:07 remaining. Not long after, the Blue Devils’ Maher was fouled and injured, but on the resulting free kick, the SCH shot was saved by the Crusaders’ keeper.

For a time, it looked like the contest might play out with a 1-0 result, but in the last 15 minutes, things went downhill for the Devils. Judge ended up with a convincing victory after scoring goals with 13:26, 3:23, and 1:51 remaining.

In the 2025 Inter-Ac League season, teams will chase three-time defending champion Haverford School. The ‘Fords won last fall with a record of 8-1-1, while Penn Charter finished a close second at 7-2-1. After fifth-place SCH came Germantown Academy, at 1-8-1.