On November 1, 2021, the Moorestown Friends’ girls soccer team made their first Friends School League championship appearance since 1997, facing off against Germantown Friends. MFS was down 0-3 by the end of the first half, however, Foluke Balogun (’24) answered back with two goals in the second half. Her second goal was scored with just 20 seconds remaining in the game. Even with the game’s exciting conclusion, Germantown defeated the Foxes 6-2, leaving MFS girls soccer with a Friends League record of 6 wins and 2 losses.

Head Coach Akemi Moriuchi admitted, “It wasn’t [their] day,” however, she highlighted that “they played to the last whistle, and that’s all you can ask for.” 

Moriuchi also commented on the team’s strategy and mentality going into the game: “Our team’s strategy was to carry the momentum that we had … and just to keep building each other up, communicating, using our passing patterns and keeping our width. … We definitely put ourselves in a hold for the beginning part of the game, which is attributed a little bit to adrenaline and the field wasn’t great, but everyone has to play on the same field, and they never stopped fighting.” 

Although the team lost the championship game, players like Roni Kennedy ’22 would still call this season a success: “I feel like this season was very special in that we all had a very strong bond. This year was different from other years in that there were weeks of intense games leading up to the final game with a team that is really close knit and excited to play. Never before have I had a season this special and intense,” said Kennedy. 

Despite the unfortunate end to the girls soccer Friends League season, the team approached their final games using their motto “All Heart,” and as Coach Moriuchi said, leaving “everything out there.”