Boys soccer started this season with an experienced group. They entered the Titan Classic, the first tournament, with the goal of making it to the championship and they succeeded.
“I think we return like eight or nine starters. And then we had a good group of younger JV kids moving up. So I would say (I have) high expectations,” coach Paul Burke said.
They ended up losing 2-1 to Newton in the Titan Classic title game. But they continue on to their next goal of preparing to enter the league games.
“That’s our next big focus is win league. Our last kind of regular season goal is to have a top four seed so that we can host a regional. Obviously, we’re sitting pretty right now at 4-2. So we’re kind of, we’re in the right direction, we need to go for those three big main goals,” Burke said.
The Panthers beat East 3-1 on Monday.
It’s been a while since soccer had so many seniors – there’s 14, including three foreign exchange students. High numbers is always an advantage in case of injury, illness and in case players need breaks.
“Our depth is amazing. Of course, so one of our big things for this group is our depth, we have a solid 17 players that I would trust to play anytime, anywhere, anyplace. This is not always the case with every team… So yeah, we’re subbing five or six guys at a time. It’s kind of like hockey-style almost, which is a good luxury to have when some injuries happen. Or we’ve had some run-ins with some kids just being sick, general high school things. So having that depth is an awesome thing,” Burke said.
The starting lineup changes each game, and no two games in a row have had the same starters.
“Again, trying to keep kids hungry, trying to keep it competitive to where they’re always working to want to be in the starting lineup, not just satisfied that ‘I’m a starter, I’m always going to be a starter type of thing’. That’s kind of the mindset with having that many kids again, we typically don’t have that many. So we’ve never really been in this situation. So it is kind of new. And it’s working. It’s keeping kids focused on the next thing and not just again taking it for granted or assuming you already have something,” Burke said.
Although the lineup might not be the same, you can always look for seniors Ethan Young and Collin Meyer, the team captions.
“They’re kind of the voice of the team,” Burke said.
Young is the goalkeeper.
“He’s Mr. Steady. He does exactly what he’s supposed to do all the time. He’s probably one of the better goalies in the area. Now, our defense is pretty dang good, too. So he doesn’t always get a lot of action or a bunch of saves to make but that just shows you how good some of the other areas are, but he does his job every single time,” Burke said.
“Another guy would be Collin Meyer, more of your kind of typical midfield guy that’s running all over the place, but he’s our leading scorer. Right now, he’s kind of like in the right place at the right time.”
