NYC high school soccer player dies after injury during match

 (iStock Photo)

Thomas Jakelich’s final moments were spent doing what he loved most – playing soccer with his friends.

The 16-year-old sophomore, who went to the ritzy Loyola High School on the Upper East Side, died Monday night hours after an on-field collision during a varsity soccer match against the United Nations International School.

“He was doing the thing he loved very much,” his tearful stepfather, Rick Newman, said.

Newman received a call from Loyola officials around 4:20 p.m. saying that Jakelich had been injured during an attempt to score and was on his way to Harlem Hospital Center.

Jakelich was conscious on the ambulance ride to the emergency room, complaining of a pain in his side. He underwent numerous surgeries before doctors pronounced him dead around 11 p.m.

“The doctors were very good,” Newman said, adding that it took a little while to discover that he was internally bleeding. “We were in constant contact.”

His aunt, Carolyn Sieja-Bagshaw, who traveled from Arizona to be with her sister, said Jakelich didn’t have any underlying medical conditions and was a “selfless” kid.

“He was sweet, witty, loving, generous,” the 53-year-old said aboard a Metro North train on the way to see her grieving family. “He would help others around him without hesitation.”

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