The match that the young players of football club RKDVC Drunen will play on May 22 in memory of teammates Pepijn (20) and Matt (19) is very likely the last game of the season. Then it stops for a while. The grief for the two boys who both died in a tragic traffic accident last Saturday night is too great.
It was a Sunday like any other, when the teammates of RKDVC Drunen would meet on the field for a nice game of football. Until disturbing apps poured in in the morning.
Pepijn Pijnenborg (20) and Matt de Roij (19), who both played in the 15th team, both died that night after being kicked by a car in Loon op Zand.
“My heart rate flew up, it was so intense to read.”
The shock is great at the club. “One minute you’re lying in bed unsuspectingly, waking up a little, and then suddenly you get a message and you realize that you’ve lost two friends,” says teammate Noah Kamp. “My heart rate flew up, it was so intense to read.”
Noah was good friends with the two. He still knew Pepijn from high school. “It’s a very close team. Some boys already played together as B’tjes, about six years ago. The friendship extended much further than on the field, we also visited each other in the free time,” he says.
That was also the case last Saturday evening, when the boys wanted to go out with a couple in Tilburg. They took the bus, and for an unknown reason Pepijn and Matt got off halfway at the bus stop in Loon op Zand. There the boys crossed the road, where they were hit by a car.
Matt and Pepijn’s teammates will play a match in memory of their friends on May 22. In special shirts, which will bear the names of the two, plus the text ‘Rest in Peace’. All (senior) teams have been asked to come and watch as spectators. It is immediately the only game that RKDVC15 will still play this season.
“There has been such a gap in our team that we don’t want to play anymore.”
“It’s such a big loss, there’s such a hole in our team that we don’t want to play anymore,” said Noah. “The motivation is gone for a while for everyone.” Actually, there were still five games scheduled in the competition. The points simply go to the opposing team.
Memories of Matt and Pippin, they abound. “Matt was very impulsive, just like Pepijn. They liked to play a joke and to be a little crazy. The two of them had a great time.”
Teammate Flynn van Mooi wrote an impressive tribute about the loss of the boys. “Up there they are two more atmosphere makers, here we fill the large voids left behind with the way of life they have transferred to us for years.”
“We care about and support each other,” Noah says. “We try to laugh together as much as possible, but sometimes that also includes a tear. You can’t stop that.”
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