GHS Alums- Statham & Mason Guide Morton Girls Soccer to 2nd in State

Mark Mason and Zach Statham

Two Galesburg High School grads have had a very exciting time this Spring. Zach Statham (Head Coach) and Mark Mason (Ass’t Coach) took their Morton Potter girls soccer team to a 2nd place finish in the IHSA 2A State Tourney. 

Statham and Mason are both 2008 grads of GHS. They played on the Silver Streaks soccer team all four years. This is Statham’s first year as head coach at Morton. Previously he was head coach at Monmouth-Roseville. For five years he was both the head coach of boys and girls soccer at Monmouth-Roseville. He was hired this year to be both the girls and boys soccer coaches at Morton. 

From the IHSA Tourney website.
Statham- Back row, 2nd from left
Mason- Back row, last on right

This year’s Morton girls team finished 26-2-1 on their way to the 2nd place in State finish. The Potters three blemishes were a 1-0 loss to Peoria ND, a tie with Maine South, and the 3-1 loss to Crystal Lake Central in the State Championship contest. 

The Potters shut out 19 straight opponents going into the State series. No team scored on Morton from April 10 thru June 2. 

After the championship game loss, Coach Zach Statham expressed his excitement to Caden Sexton of Clutch Sports Media,”I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, I like this feeling.”

As far as stopping the Potter’s girls soccer success, it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon. They return 7 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 2 freshmen from this 2nd in State team. The top six goal scorers from the team are two juniors, three sophomores, and one freshman. The two goalies were a freshmen and a junior. 

GHS soccer team in 2007-8 school year.
Mark Mason- back row, 4th from left.
Zach Statham- back row, 2nd from right.

To WMBD TV, Zach summed up their season this way, “You know this group will never be the same, we have a special group. But we also know that we have in us to do one better than we did this year. So it’s a great season, but we’re chasing perfection, and that’s hard to track down, and three games this year we didn’t do well enough in, and one them was tonight.” 

Congrats to GHS alums, Zach Statham and Mark Mason. 

Zach Statham- 2008 GHS Reflector

Mark Mason- 2008 GHS Reflector