For students just now learning the details of the French-Indian War and the importance of the Gettysburg Address, the boys of the McKelvie soccer team certainly have a firm grasp on history, if only applied to the Tri- County Class L championship.

With the Ross A. Lurgio Middle School set to open next fall and McKelvie to become a home to fifth- and sixth-graders only, this year’s boys soccer team knew it would be the school’s last to challenge for a league title. No stranger to title games, it also knew what it took to capture it.

With a 1-0 win over fourthseeded Londonderry, McKelvie closed out October, its season and the boys soccer program with its second title in four years and first since 2003, ending a run of five straight championship appearances under coach John Miner.

McKelvie, the tournament’s second seed, erased a 2-0 deficit to beat No. 3 Mountain View Middle School of Goffstown, 3-2, in the semifinals thanks to striker Mike Prestipino’s hat trick, before netting the title game’s lone goal on a Prestipino first-half score to earn the crown.

While co-captains Matt Cote and Danny Connelly controlled the midfield and Lucas Olen and Evan Powlowsky anchored the back, goalie Tony Iarrobino came up with a number of huge saves, including two in one-on-one situations, in the championship.

McKelvie, which finished 9-3, also made good on the rallying cry Miner said his players reminded themselves of all season: “We’re the last group and we have to do our best.”

“For all of us, it was a special year because they were the last McKelvie team, and I knew it was special to the boys because they brought it up so early,” Miner said. “So I don’t know if there was a turning point in the season because the whole year was so great. The whole season was just smooth.”

Miner didn’t necessarily anticipate it happening that way, though. With a relatively young team – Miner took three sixth graders; he usually takes one, maybe two – the coach said he expected a “building year,” an odd predicament for a program with no next year to build for.

Yet, thanks to leadership from his eighth-graders – including Cote, Donnelly, Olen, Prestipino, Troy Stafford, Santi Linares, Nick Villeneuve and Kyle Basoukas – and versatility across the board, McKelvie was a contender from the start.

A defining point came early.

At 3-1 entering its first road game against Mountain View, then undefeated at 4-0, McKelvie’s 4-1 victory was a huge statement in what was an uncommonly balanced league.

A strong seventh-grade class that included Syver Klefos, Richard O’Brian, Brian Ducharme, Brendan Dow, A.J. Correia, David Cummings, Ryan Gancarz and Constantin Christandl also contributed, while sixth-graders Scott Johnson, Johnny Cassidy and Kyle Gambeski were well worth Miner’s investment in youth. Prestipino, working up top with Klefos, led the team with nearly 20 goals.

“I guess the beauty of this team was that I had a lot of utility and that they knew the game well enough that they had multiple positions, so it gave us a lot of flexibility,” Miner said. “But honestly, a lot of it comes from the boys’ background. There’s a great (youth) program in Bedford and it makes our job a little easier here. They learn a lot of skills and a lot of positions.”