20 SportsUnion | NOVEMBER 2, 2018
Photos Provided By:
Frontier FC
high school
Soccer
Senior Duo of Clifford & Kozak etch their names in Frontier
HS record books
By Mickey Bricks
The brilliant high school
soccer careers of Frontier FC
captains Matt Clifford and
Jonah Kozak did not end
they way they might have
envisioned.
After completing a record
setting regular season cam-
paign that witnessed the
Falcon kickers most on field
success in decades; a bat-
tered, bruised, injured and
severely weakened Fron-
tier squad limped out of the
ECIC Division 1 playoffs at
the hands of an always dan-
gerous Lancaster Legends
squad.
Despite an unceremoni-
ous conclusion, the careers
of Clifford and Kozak seem
poised to take the next
step to the collegiate level,
but not before the hopes
of garnering some person-
al hardware in the hope of
Making
History
All-WNY soccer accolades.
The thought of person-
al achievements, let alone
team success seemed for-
eign when the two, then
8th graders, were called up
to the Varsity squad for its
short playoff run in 2014.
Since the mid-2000’s, the
Frontier Boys soccer pro-
gram compiled a paltry 58-
105-20 overall record. Save
for a few blips of success, the
Bayview Road school was
known as anything but a
soccer hotbed. When Coach
Rich Kozak arrived five sea-
sons ago, he witnessed a
team culture in serious need
of a rebuild. Under the lead-
ership of Captains Clifford
and Kozak the Frontier FC
side finished with an overall
record of 13-4-1.
They achieved the best
regular season record since
1952 and the team’s .750
winning percentage is the
best in the school’s mod-
ern era. Only thee talent-
ed 1996 Falcons recorded
more overall wins. (18 game
season plus playoffs before
New York State cutbacks in
athletic scheduling)
Kozak states, “Kids were
literally scouring the hall-
ways looking for anyone to
help field a team our first
years here at Frontier. Soc-
cer wasn’t an afterthought;
it wasn’t a thought at all.”
When the time for a re-
boot of the program, the
search for the future corner-
stones of the program really
didn’t need any searching at
all. Matt Clifford had been a
standout on Hamburg Mon-
archs teams for years and
the Coach just needed to
go down the hall in his own
home to find his son Jonah.
In the ensuing years and
seasons, both young men
would put in the countless
hours of training, games,
weight room work, and
travel to develop into two of
the elite players at their po-
sition in the Western New
York area.
For the past few seasons,
Clifford has been plying his
trade at the Premier Lev-
el for the WNY Flash. Clif-
ford’s dynamic defending
style help lead the 2018 team
into the finals of the New
York State Cup tournament.