St. Ignatius kicks off the season as the FAB 50 boys No. 1 team
In recent years, the run for FAB 50 No. 1 has been a two-horse race: St. Ignatius (Ohio) and St. Benedict’s (N.J.).
This year, there might be a third team that can make a serious run — Calvert Hall (Md.).
For a bit of context, St. Ignatius is the outright two-time defending FAB 50 national champion and shared the honor with St. Benedict’s in 2019. St. Benedict’s won the two national titles before that. Either St. Ignatius or St. Benedict’s has claimed the FAB 50 title every year going back to 2010 with the exception of one season – 2013. Neither St. Benedict’s or St. Ignatius has lost a match since St. Benedict’s handed St. Ignatius a loss in 2018.
Both teams are stacked again in 2022. St. Ignatius already has four NCAA Division I commits with more to follow. St. Benedict’s has 10 players, including eight starters, from a club team that won a national title this past summer. As usual, St. Ignatius and St. Benedict’s will start 1-2 in the preseason FAB 50. The preseason ranking order matters little, though, as the teams go head-to-head in New Jersey on Oct. 1 — a match that very well could settle the No. 1 ranking.
But as mentioned earlier, there might be a solid third contender this year in the name of Calvert Hall. The Cardinals are the reigning MIAA A Conference champion and this year’s lineup is simply stacked. Calvert Hall features a pair of Penn State commits in the midfield, along with a Loyola (Md.) commit, with plenty more to follow. In addition, Calvert Hall will get to test its ranking position Oct. 8 when it travels to Cleveland, Ohio, to take on St. Ignatius.
Unlike other preseason boys soccer rankings that are largely a list repeating last year’s final rankings, PrepSoccer assesses the elite teams based on returning players and reasonable expectations for the upcoming season. This sort of detail, with capsules on the 25 teams, allows the FAB 50 to shed a spotlight on real projected top teams this year.
