CORTEZ – After a 2024 season where the Panthers boys soccer team flashed glimpses of their future potential, fourth-year head coach Juan Soto believes that this could be a watershed season for the program.
On a team that started several freshman last fall, M-CHS adds another dozen first-year players to program while the rising sophomore class hopes to make the next steps to improve upon a 3-11-1 season.
While the Class of 2028 produced most of the goal scoring for the Panthers last year, led by Brandon Zamora, Degan Lake, and Abner Gonzales-Garcia along with rising junior Keegan Kosik, Soto is also leaning on his senior midfielders and defenders to bring the experience to allow the Panthers to climb the Intermountain League standings.
“Each one of our seniors demonstrates good leadership personality traits,” said Soto, “and we also have several underclassmen players are bringing those skills to our program, too.”
Seniors Koyle Martinez, Josh Yarbrough, and Brady Fresquez are among the seniors looking to use their steady play to manage the large wave of the future for M-CHS soccer.
Being fed by the growing youth club levels has paid dividends as well for the Panthers – “Almost all of our incoming freshmen played in the U15 program,” said Soto. “They’re bringing in a skill level that adds to our foundation.”
On plenty of summer evenings at Parque de Vida, the soccer fields were abuzz with scrimmages and conditioning sessions with numbers that haven’t been typical for the program in recent years. “We averaged 22 players each night,” lauded Soto, “and the players started to get comfortable with each other.”
It’s a chemistry that M-CHS hopes will create a dynamic product when the season gets rolling on Aug. 19 in Bloomfield (New Mexico) – and an increased coaching staff will help the development of the Panthers at the varsity and subvarsity levels. “Each of our five coaches bring their expertise to bring out the full potential of each of our players,” added Soto.
M-CHS will need to replace their goalkeeper, and their position battles all over the pitch will make for vibrant practices as the Panther look forward to plenty of home matches to showcase their talent in front of the home fans.
Their home opener arrives on Aug. 22 against Ridgway, starting a four-match homestand that will include visits from Eagle Valley (Aug. 30), Telluride (Sept. 5) and Moffat County (Sept. 6). The Panthers hope to pile up wins in league play, which begins on the road in Pagosa Springs on Sept. 9. The Panthers wind down the regular season with matches at home against Alamosa (Oct. 16) and in Grand Junction against Caprock Academy (Oct. 18), in hopes that their regular season résumé will land the program in the 3A postseason for the first time in multiple decades.
