You’ve heard of sports teams repeating, and even the occasional “three-peat,” but what do you call it when you win four times in a row? You call it the Glenvar High boys’ soccer team.
The Highlanders defeated Bruton and Clarke County High Schools for their fourth straight Class 2 soccer championship last weekend, battling the heat and two worthy foes. The wins concluded a 22-0-1 season with only a 1-1 tie against Magna Vista in their season opener not resulting in victory. Glenvar has now gone 84 straight games without a loss.
Last weekend was not without some nervous moments. The Highlanders fell behind for the first time all year in Friday’s game with Bruton. The game was moved from Friday afternoon at Salem High’s Spartan Field to a 10 am kickoff at Kerr Stadium on the campus of Roanoke College with hot and humid weather anticipated. And, when the Panthers scored with 2:45 to go in the first half, the heat was on the Highlanders.
That’s how the score stood well into the second half as the team from Williamsburg could smell the upset. However, with just over 13 minutes to go in regulation freshman Zach Williams scored off a corner kick. Jackson Jones took the kick and Ryder Fancisco got a head on the ball in front of the goal, allowing Williams to poke it in.
Glenvar had a golden opportunity to win the game in regulation when Parker Doolan was fouled in the box and the Highlanders were awarded a penalty kick with 6:09 remaining. Senior captain Adam Saunders took the kick, but it hit high off the side pipe and the game remained tied.
Nothing was settled through the remainder of regulation, two five minutes overtimes and two five minute “sudden victory” overtimes. So, it went to penalty kicks with five rounds of kicks. Bruton won the toss and elected to go second.
Glenvar got successful kicks from Doolan, Henry Schruth, Francisco and Gavin Miller but Bruton was also successful on four of five, sending it to “sudden death” penalty kicks. Schruth went again and converted, but Glenvar keeper Tyler Shannon saved the Panthers’ try for an apparent win. However, it was ruled Tyler had moved too early and Bruton was awarded a second try. Tyler saved it again and pandemonium erupted for a second time as the Highlanders officially sealed the win.
Clarke County defeated Appomattox in the other semifinal, 3-0, to set up a Glenvar-Clarke County final for the third time in the past five years. The last time Glenvar did not win the championship was 2022, when Clarke beat the Highlanders 3-2 in the final. Glenvar began the stretch of four straight titles the following year when the Highlanders avenged the loss with a 1-0 win over Clarke in the championship match at Roanoke College.
Saturday’s game was at Salem High’s Spartan Field, starting around 1 pm in the heat of the day. Clarke drew first blood with a goal just eight and a half minutes into the game. Keeper Shannon made the initial save but the rebound bounced off Tyler Curfiss’ shoulder and into the goal. Glenvar was behind again, but it was no time to panic.
“The guys did a good job of playing the game through,” said coach Josh Jones. “If you’re not mentally tough you can fall apart. Our guys just kept plugging away.”
Glenvar got the tying goal with 4:01 remaining in the half when Heath Russell scored off a cross from Doolan. That’s how it stood at the half, but the momentum had swung to Glenvar’s side.
“When Heath scored that goal you could sense a big switch of momentum,” said Curfiss. “Then, hearing coach Jones’ speech at halftime, we knew the other team was tired. It was hot out there and they were exhausted, they hardly had any chances in the second half.”
Glenvar scored what proved to be the winning goal when Francisco scored off a Jackson Jones corner kick 12 minutes into the second half. Evan Harris was then credited with a goal just three minutes later when Shannon hit a free kick from midfield that bounced over the Clarke keeper’s head into the cage. Tyler got an assist and Harris was credited with the goal as he distracted the keeper on the play and that was critical to the score.
The Highlanders got an insurance goal with 15:41 to go on a Levi King one-timer off a Francisco assist, and at that point the Clarke County bus driver turned the air conditioner on. There was no use warming up the bus on this day.
“It showed how important conditioning is,” said Curfiss. “Since day one of tryouts we’ve been running. Coach Jones stresses how important it is to be in better shape than the team we’re playing, and that really showed Saturday. We were still running on Wednesday and Thursday after the (state quarterfinal) Gate City game.”
Jones played high school soccer for Jeff Highfill at William Byrd, and being in great shape was always a trait of Jeff’s teams.
“That was a huge advantage for us,” said Jones. “When you’re used to those elements it will eventually show. We do a lot of conditioning and we also had more depth than Clarke County. We go 17 deep and that really paid off.”
For three Glenvar senior captains, Curfiss, Saunders and Miller, and senior Heath Russell it was their fourth season on the varsity with all four ending in a state championship.
“All four are special, and this one was really exciting,” said Curfiss. “Probably the most special one was when I was a sophomore because my brother (Zach) was on the team and I got to play with him.”
Saunders missed much of his freshman year with a torn hip flexor but has been a big part of the past three seasons. He tried to keep things in perspective.
“It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we lost, but it’s great to get four,” he said. “We had a lot of seniors on last year’s team I’d played with all those players for years, so this was like a whole new team to me. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I’m going to miss it. Soccer has been my whole life.”
Miller was an outside back on the defense, and takes pride in the fact that Glenvar only allowed six goals all season. He credits good coaching for much of that success.
“We’re always in the correct position,” he said. “We were favored going in and, even though we went behind in both games, I wasn’t worried.”
Glenvar will return a good portion of this year’s team as they attempt a “five-peat?” next spring. After losing 13 seniors from the 2025 team this group grew up a bunch this season.
“It’s fun to see kids who were role type players to come back and develop into leaders,” said Jones. “This was a totally different group of guys and I’m really proud of them.”
After coaching the girls at Salem, including one state championship there, Jones has now been at Glenvar for six years with the Highlander boys and has never regretted his decision to make the move. He’s been to the Final Four all six years, has a son on the team and another on the middle school team who might be on the varsity next year. It’s a family affair in more ways than one.
“This is a really special place and it’s a testament to the guys who bought into what we’re doing,” said Jones. “We’ve created quite a tradition here and this group didn’t want to let the guys in the past down. It was an awesome thing to see.”
Francisco(right with striped shirt) is about to head it into the cage to give Glenvar a 2-1 lead
scores the tying goal in the semifinal against Bruton to send the game into overtime.
