Credit: Friends of Belmont Soccer
In the fourth game of his sophomore year in 2016, Jake Herlihy went up to head a ball, as he’s done many times before. Yet this time ended differently for the 6-foot-3 defender from Belmont (Mass.) High School.
“I remember going up and the ball hitting me, me not hitting the ball,” Herlihy said. “It caught me off-balance and I fell to the ground, and I hit my head on the turf.”
The surprise contact resulted in Herlihy’s first concussion, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season and almost all of his junior year. Now fully cleared of concussion symptoms, Herlihy is starting on defense as a senior for the Marauders, who hope to make a deep run into the postseason.
