The local boys soccer teams enter the new season in different places, but all three clubs have specific goals they’re working toward in 2025.
Practice started for Mankato West, Mankato East and Mankato Loyola/St. Clair/LCWM/Nicollet this week and games are just around the corner.
Here’s a look at each team:
Mankato East
Last season was everything the Cougars were hoping it would be.
After a crushing shootout loss in the section final in 2023, East won the section championship in 2024, advancing to state for the first time since 2012.
“We had a great squad last year, a great run,” East coach Jerrad Aspelund said. “We’d been to the section final too many times. It’s tough to win a section championship for sure.”
The Cougars lose a couple of key players from last year’s team in attackers Jhoel Dillon and Salman Ali, but a strong defensive nucleus returns. The entire back line — Jackson Buboltz, Lincoln Funke and Briggs Meyer — remains intact, with goalkeeper Collin Pierskalla also returning.
East surrendered only 22 goals last season en route to a 13-4-2 finish and should be tough to score on again this fall.
The offense will be anchored by Carson Stenzel, who had eight goals and six assists last season.
“You can win championships by playing good defense,” Aspelund said. “I think that’s kind of where we’re starting off here.”
Aspelund isn’t worried about a state tournament hangover. He said the team met soon after falling to Orono in the Class AA quarterfinals last season to discuss goals and that the team was focused on returning to that stage.
“We made it, but they know they didn’t play their best game,” Aspelund said. “Now they want another crack at it.”
Mankato West
Scarlets’ coach Gavin Mason figured the 2024 season would come with some growing pains.
West was losing most of its scoring production from the previous year and some young players were going to be stepping into bigger roles.
“I think our play at times was really good,” Mason said. “We made some mistakes that had to do with youth and inexperience. We were frequently playing three freshmen and several sophomores. Overall, the level of our play, I was more happy with than the record would indicate.”
A year later, coming off a 4-12-1 season, those young players are now a year older and the Scarlets are already looking sharper.
Mason said the learning curve has been quick the first week of practice with players being more familiar with their roles and the system.
Key returners include forward Isaac Ulman and midfielders Christian Sulzle and Jakobe Tosch. On defense, Jackson Anderson, Mateo Englehorn and Harrison Velasquez are among returners.
“It’s been really competitive,” Mason said. “The guys have come in with a great mentality. They’re ready to push and ready to improve upon last year. … It’s been good training sessions so far.”
The Scarlets aren’t shooting for a set number of wins or a specific section finish. Mason wants the team to improve throughout the season and to be playing its best at the end.
“We feel like our section is pretty wide open and we feel like we can compete with anyone in that section,” Mason said. “Our expectation is to be competing in the postseason.”
Mankato Loyola/St. Clair/LCWM/Nicollet
After not playing a varsity schedule in 2023, the Crusaders played a full varsity slate last season and were very competitive in many games.
Numbers have been a problem in the past, but participation is on the rise and coach Andrew Fells is confident the program will be able to sustain both a varsity and junior varsity roster long-term.
“One of the big reasons we didn’t do a varsity that year was the youth. It just didn’t make sense to play varsity,” Fells said. “At this point, we’re not losing players. We’re growing the program year-over-year, so I don’t see any reason that we won’t continue to have both JV and varsity going forward.”
Loyola/St. Clair/LCWM/Nicollet only had 31 players out in 2023 when it played a JV schedule. That number was up to 38 last season and the program begins this year at 41.
It’s still a very young group, but only two players graduated from last season. Fells thinks Max Wilson, Rider Wachal and Rowan Beal are returners who could be primed to make a big impact.
Team goals haven’t formally been discussed yet, but Fells said there has been some talk about a target for the section playoffs.
“One specific thing that’s been talked about is winning at least a first round playoff game,” he said.