Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: M-A’s Nathan Thurlow

What M-A did in those four games was nothing short of remarkable, posting a 3-0-1 mark, with wins over Serra and St. Ignatius, currently the second- and third-place teams, respectively, in the WCAL. The longterm strategy paid off, as the Bears are now in the midst of one of the greatest seasons in modern program history, owners of an undefeated 13-0-4 overall record with two regular-season games to play.

“I set out this season to set the strongest schedule possible ... and I think when we came out of that preseason undefeated, we were just on a roll,” M-A head coach Brian Mansell said.

Playmaking marksman Nathan Thurlow has been the catalyst of M-A’s historic run.

The senior has been named Daily Journal Athlete of the Week after exacting four goals through M-A’s two wins on the week. He warmed up with one score last Wednesday in the Bears’ 2-1 victory over Burlingame. Then, in a showdown last Friday with Carlmont — one of two teams tangled in second place behind M-A in the PAL Bay standings — he delivered one of the best performances of his career, recording a hat trick in a decisive 4-1 victory.

Thurlow now has 18 goals on the season, tops in the PAL. The career year transcends the scoring totals, though, as the senior — a lifer on the soccer pitch who began playing when he was 5 — has never seen this run of success with any team, at any level.

“Not quite like this, not for this sustained period,” Thurlow said. “Not for 17 games, which is definitely by far the most undefeated for me personally, and I’d think the rest of my team too.”

Yes, Thurlow and his teammates are in awe of the magic. Still, for a team that has done just about everything right this season, they’re still putting a lot of pressure on themselves.

Despite their unbeaten start, including a 6-0-2 record (20 points) in PAL Bay Division play, the Bears aren’t out of the woods yet. With two regular-season games to play, the league frontrunners are leading the Bay Division’s other second-place team, Aragon, by a mere two points. So, M-A needs to take care of business Wednesday when the two teams meet head-to-head in order to clinch the program’s first league championship since 2019-20.

“We know that we can’t lose,” Thurlow said. “Not only for our undefeated season, but if we want to win league, we can’t lose Wednesday against Aragon. That’s not lost on anybody.”

It has been a generation since M-A boys’ soccer posted an undefeated record. Thurlow and his fellow seniors were in kindergarten when the Bears went 15-0-5 in the 2011-12 regular season, ultimately suffering their only loss in the Central Coast Section Division I finals to finish with a 17-1-5 mark.

It’s a feat not even the greatest team in program history — the 1985 CCS champion Bears — were able to achieve. M-A finished the regular-season campaign with a 19-1-1 record that season, finishing with four postseason wins to notch a program-record 23 wins.

Being in the conversation with those storied teams is a vast improvement over Thurlow and company’s previous seasons at M-A. Last season’s disheartening performance started well enough. Like this year, the Bears opened on a 3-0-1 tear. Then came the defining shortcoming of the 2023-24 season, as M-A posted a 2-5 record in one-goal outcomes.

“I think the team in the previous year, we would lose the close games,” Thurlow said. “And this year, we’ve won a lot of games by a single goal. We’ve been able to hold on to a lot of those leads. ... We’ve been able to grow together ... and it’s pushing us over the edge in some of these games where, in other years, they wouldn’t have gone our way.”

Not only has M-A gone 5-0 in one-goal games this season, the team has never trailed. That’s right, the defense anchored by central defender Noah De Haaff has yet to yield a go-ahead goal to an opponent.

That’s why last Friday’s win over Carlmont was so tenuous in the early going. Typically a quick-strike offense, the Bears took an excruciating 24 minutes to get on the scoreboard. And it was Thurlow who delivered, with the initial attempt by senior defender Frank Aguilar initially being deflected by the Carlmont goalkeeper, but falling right to the foot of Thurlow in front of the cage.

“It was probably he simplest finish of my life,” Thurlow said.

Then came one of Thurlow’s best, a blistering wind sprint off the sideline to charge into the penalty area before stopping on a dime, settling with his back to the goal, then wheeling around to score from just outside the 18-meter line with an exacting right foot to make it 2-0 in the 30th minute.

“It was five minutes after I scored my first goal,” Thurlow said. “I was thrilled honestly. ... Really, getting that second goal gave us a little more confidence to play, and confidence in the game itself.”

Junior midfielder Mateo Sosnik made it 3-0 before the half with his second goal of the year. Then in the second half, Thurlow finished off the hat trick with a milestone pass from senior forward Yandel Hernandez, who recorded his 10th assist of the season.

“A lot of them were to me, so I’m thankful to him and all that he’s done to help me,” Thurlow said.

With two regular-season games to go — including next Friday’s Senior Day against South City — the Bears are banking on Thurlow, who is two goals shy of 20 on the season, to reach a milestone of his own in the coming days. What’s certain, however, is that as Thurlow goes, so goes the best M-A team in a generation.

“He’s a unique player in that he’s exceptionally determined and motivated,” Mansell said. “He’s one of the hardest workers you’ll ever have. He just has a motor that doesn’t stop.”

Editor's note: Frank Aguilar's name has been updated