by DAVE FACINOLI
As has been the case in past seasons, a highlight of the Bishop O'Connell Knights’ 2025 boys soccer campaign was enjoying a standout regular-season record against Northern Virginia private-school opponents. This fall the Knights were unbeaten at 5-0-2 against those opponents. They tied and defeated St. Paul VI Catholic, tied Episcopal and won over Trinity School at Meadow View, Virginia Academy, St. John Paul the Great and Bishop Ireton. Overall, O'Connell finished with an 11-8-2 overall record under Chris Jennings, in his 14th season as the team's head coach.
The Knights' campaign ended with a 3-1 loss to the Potomac School in the VISAA Division I state tournament semifinal match. The Knights were the third seed and finished 1-1 in the competition. They received a first-round bye, then blanked sixth-seed Benedictine, 1-0 in overtime, in the quarterfinals.
Prior to the state tourney, O'Connell lost a first-round match to eventual champion Gonzaga in the difficult Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) tournament.
"We had a young team and the season went about as we expected," Jennings said. "It was a good developmental season for our young players. The team got better each day."
Two other big regular-season games for the Knights were non-conference matches over Richmond schools St. Christopher's and Collegiate. O'Connell defeated Collegiate and lost 1-0 to St. Christopher's, which won the state championship. Collegiate was the fourth-seed and a semifinalist in the state tournament.Episcopal was another state-tourney team as the seventh seed.
"Our conference is always very tough and we played a hard non-conference schedule also," Jennings said.
Top players for O'Connell were senior midfielder Sullivan Carter and junior fullback Campbell Knisley, each were team captains and first-team all-WCAC and VISAA Division I all-state selections. Sullivan led the team in scoring with 26 goals and nine assists. Jennings said Sullivan will play in college next fall, but the school or level of play has not yet been determined.
"Carter is a very good attacking player," Jennings said.
Chosen honorable mention all-WCAC for the Knights were freshman Evan Curry, sophomore Bryan Marin and senior Zack Robbins, also a team captain. Robbins was the team's second-leading scorer.
Curry was one of four freshmen on the team and Marin one of seven sophomores. Other freshmen were Ethan Cave, Andrew Fonseka and Sergio Olmos. Other sophomores were Kadan Siodlarz, Trey O'Sullivan, Colin Beegan, Trevor O'Sullivan, Nebiyou Yonas and Andrew Bernhart. Siodlarz was another top scorer. Joining Knisley as juniors were Briggs Demangone, Tommy McBride, Micah Sanatjou, Connor Robbins, Ethan Malagrin, Luke Krumenacker, Kevin Colevas and Kellen Colevas.