Two Bishop Seabury fans hold up a sign for senior day.

In many ways, Bishop Seabury’s senior day was emblematic of its program.

In just its third year of a program reboot, the Seahawks didn’t have the same firepower of club-level players as Basehor-Linwood. It would’ve been easy for them to let up, especially after allowing an early goal. But they didn’t, leaning on the collective group of seniors and others who wanted to send them out the right way until the very end of the 3-0 defeat.

“It’s amazing how much they’ve grown. … Just fantastic, fantastic kids,” said coach Ivo Ivanov of the senior class. “I’m very proud of the team. I’m proud of these guys who (have been) great leaders throughout their careers. I don’t know what else there is to say.”

While their coach looked for the right words, the seniors had little trouble coming up with their own.

Second half goalkeeper James Jo said what touched him the most was being able to play on the field at Clinton Lake Youth Sports Complex one last time. Mick Ramos, goalkeeper in the first half, called it a “final hurrah,” while Bosco Li talked about how great it was to see the improvement of both the team and its players.

Finally, Thomas diZerega, perhaps the most prominent on-field performer of the senior class despite initially joining the program without any youth soccer experience, spoke about how things changed in his time with the team, at least before he was pulled away by some of the many students in attendance for the match.

“It’s just the culmination of the three years of work that we’ve put in,” diZerega said. “Every season we’ve grown, gotten better as a team, to where this year, we’re really a strong, solid soccer team that can compete with a lot of strong, solid other teams.”

Sure enough, it was a collective effort that helped keep the Seahawks close for much of the match.

After falling behind 1-0 on an own goal in the opening minutes, the Seabury offense started to come together. Already in the attacking third, Freddy Comparato linked up with Sam Bayliss, who passed to Li near the goal, but the ball was knocked away. Comparato — who Ivanov called a “magician” after the match — continued to be a menace, connecting with diZerega and Evan McHenry to create several scoring opportunities.

“We linked up a couple times and either one of us would take one touch too many or take a shot a little too early or not look for the pass or something,” Comparato said. “It was just one small mistake that could’ve cost us a goal.”

Even without it, though, the Seahawks were poised to get to the half down only 1-0, at least until a breakaway opportunity in the 39th minute. Bobcats junior Austin Fuhr gave his side a 2-0 lead, chipping a ball into the net from some 20 yards away.

While Ramos wasn’t able to save that shot, both he and Jo put their collective stamp on the game, combining for 10 total saves in the loss.

All four seniors would ultimately contribute to the effort, with Li providing a boost of energy at three different stints and diZerega helping direct the offense through several key sequences.

“This team has existed for three years. They’ve been here from the beginning, the very beginning,” Ivanov said of the seniors. “Today, they played against one of the best teams in the state, a perennial favorite to win the state title, and we measured ourselves. … We now know that we can play against anybody.”

And while that was what it represented for their coach, for Comparato, things were a little different.

The sophomore acknowledged after the match the team wanted to play hard for its seniors — and obviously to try to get the win — but there was an additional piece of motivation he took from the match, looking to the future for what his own senior season might be like.

“I hope to be as much of a presence,” he said, “as Thomas diZerega was this year.”