The girls and boys varsity soccer teams both had successful seasons this year with great goals scored and good runs in the playoffs. However, both teams fell short in the finals and semifinals respectively, surely leaving both teams wanting more.
Girls Varsity
The girls team finished the season 17-5-1, sporting a roster featuring players from grades 9-12 and even an 8th grader, Lily Skarsgard ‘28. This team had a roster of five talented seniors, including captains Alex Patton ‘24 and Piper Wiese ’24, forward Carolina Martinez ’24, defender Ashley Shanks ’24, and goalkeeper Cara Anderson ’24.
The team kicked off their season in the Albuquerque Metro Tournament, an extremely competitive tournament featuring teams not only in 4A, but in 5A as well. They quickly asserted their dominance, facing off against Volcano Vista and winning 3-0. West Mesa and Rio Grande followed, but they could not match up with our Chargers, who won both games 10-0. The semifinals found the girls playing rivals St. Pius. It was a tight game, but the Chargers found a way to win when sophomore Isabella Barnes ‘26 linked up with sophomore striker Adeline Spratley ‘26 for the game winner. Their final opponent of the tournament was La Cueva, who had just come off a surprise upset against Hope Christian. The metro title has always eluded 4A soccer teams, and the girls were looking to be the first to break the curse. The game started off tight until the La Cueva girls scored a goal, getting the momentum and seemingly never stopping, with a 3-0 lead at half. This is a tough lead to come back from, but in the second half the Chargers came out with a new game plan and began to attack the Cueva backline. Despite all their efforts, the Chargers were only able to get one back, losing the game 1-3.
After only a week of recovery, the girls had another tournament, the Academy Invitational. The Chargers faced off against the 3A defending state champion Sandia Prep in the quarterfinals, convincingly winning 4-2. After a tight 2-1 semifinal game against Piedra Vista, the girls made it to the finals, where they matched up against the future 5A state champions Cleveland. In a tough double overtime, Cleveland scored a goal to win 2-1, another difficult loss for the girls to take.
The team responded well, playing rivals St. Pius once more and winning 1-0. Unfortunately, senior Ashley Shanks had a season-ending injury in this game. The Chargers continued to work through this adversity, playing a strong Sandia side and tying 0-0. Next up was district play.
4A District 6 is a competitive district with the likes of Academy and defending 4A state champions Hope Christian. The girls began against Valley, dominantly winning 10-0. Next up was Hope Christian. Unfortunately the Huskies just beat the Chargers 5-1, and it was not the Chargers’ day. Del Norte and Bernalillo were the Chargers’ next opponents, and the girls won 5-0 and 10-0, respectively. An away trip to Los Alamos came quickly after this first set of district games and the team showed up, beating a good Los Alamos team 2-1. After this little break, they had to shift their focus back to their district. Again, they won 10-0 versus Valley, a quality win before the much-anticipated rematch against Hope Christian. The Chargers fought hard the whole game against the Huskies, going down 1-0 at halftime. But they were unable to break through and lost 0-1 in the end. The Chargers took care of Del Norte, Rio Rancho, and Bernalillo to finish district in second place. Finally, it was time for the state tournament!
The girls got the second seed right behind the Hope Christian Huskies and it seemed like they would face off for one last time in the finals. The third-seeded St. Pius Sartans had only one thing on their minds though: beat Academy. Academy cruised through the quarterfinals, beating Moriarty 6-0, and they were set to play St. Pius in the semifinals.
The first 80 minutes of the game were a stalemate, and as the day began to turn to night, the overtime period was rescheduled for the next afternoon. The girls played through two overtimes. Academy was by far the better squad and they were a minute or two away from getting the game winner, but then the referee blew the final whistle, and the game went to penalties. At the beginning, the penalties seemed tight, with both teams scoring penalty after penalty, but then goalkeeper Cara Anderson ‘24 began to make some saves, and the Chargers won the game! Next up was a Hope-Academy rematch.
Hope Christian came out strong, but the Chargers were right there with them, despite Hope’s 1-0 lead at half. As the game began to open up, the Chargers started to attack. Senior Piper Wiese ‘24 connected to Adeline Spratley ‘26, who scored yet another finals goal, leading the team with 24 goals on the year. Even with the Chargers’ fight, they just couldn’t defeat Hope, losing 4-1 in the end.
Boys Varsity
The boys varsity soccer team had a strong roster going into this season, with 17 returning players and four talented new players coming in. The boys were led by their three seniors, Luke Babinski ‘24, Eco Chavez ‘24, and Felipe Canaca ‘24, and the rest of the team consisted of sophomores and juniors. They finished the season with a record of 16-6.
Like the girls, the boys began their season in the Metro Tournament. Their group was probably the strongest in the competition with teams like La Cueva and Atrisco Heritage also included. They kicked off their season with Atrisco, a team that made it to the 5A state finals, and quickly it showed that it was early in the season for the Chargers. They lost the first game 1-3 against a very talented and well-organized Jaguar side. Up next were district opponents Del Norte. The boys proved their worth in this bracket and won 9-1. The final game of the group stage was against La Cueva, the team that would go on to win the tournament. It was back and forth the whole game, with strikers Grady Gilchrist ‘25 and Luke Babinski ‘24 trading shots and narrowly missing. However, in the second half, La Cueva scored a header and the game finished with a score of 0-1. The boys were then put in the bronze bracket of the tournament where they took care of Eldorado and Albuquerque High with scores of 4-2 and 7-0 respectively.
The Academy Invitational came right after and the Chargers’ first opponent was Piedra Vista. Another dominant performance saw Academy winning 8-0. The boys cruised through the semifinals, facing Sante Fe High and winning6-2. The stage was set: the boys had made it to the final. Their opponent? Hobbs. The Chargers came out firing on all cylinders, and within the first ten minutes the boys were up after a great cross by senior Luke Babinski ‘24 right into junior Evan Chang ‘25 who slotted it away. Hobbs, who ended the season undefeated, winning the 5A state championship, were not willing to let Academy win that easily, and they scored two goals before half. Even with the boys’ best efforts in the second half, they couldn’t find a way to score and lost 1-3.
St. Pius was the next opponent under the lights at home. The boys were ready to beat their rivals and started the game off well, keeping possession and creating many chances. However, they were unable to get a goal, and a reenergized Sartan squad came out and scored a goal in the second half, beating Academy despite the eight shots on goal the boys put up. Sandia came next in a game that the boys needed to bring back some confidence. After a thrilling back-and-forth game, the boys were only able to break through with an eightieth minute goal by sophomore Chase Jones ‘26, followed by another goal in extra time by junior Ben Morgan ‘25.
District play was next on the agenda for the boys, with their first opponent being Valley. The boys took care of them, winning 4-0. In the subsequent first meeting with Hope Christian, the boys played very well, outplaying the Huskies and winning convincingly, despite the final score of 2-1. Del Norte and Bernalillo followed and the boys dealt with them, despite some shaky starts, with scores of 5-2 and 3-1, respectively.
An away day to Los Alamos followed, and the boys had one of their best performances of the season, beating a good Hilltoppers team 5-1. Valley was dominated by the Chargers in their second meeting by a score of 7-0, and then it was round two for Hope vs. Academy. After an unlucky goal in the first half, the Chargers came back strong in the second, scoring the equalizer and appearing to be on the front foot. While looking for the go-ahead goal, the Chargers were caught on a counter-attack, losing the game 1-2. The boys finished up district against Del Norte and Bernalillo with an overall goal differential in those games of +17.
The Chargers then traveled out to Rio Rancho to take on a talented Rams side who made it to the Metro semifinals this year. In what was an insane game, the Chargers got off to an early 3-1 lead, with two goals by Luke Babinski ‘24 and a goal by junior Grady Gilchrist ‘25. The second half began the same way as junior Ben Morgan ‘25 also scored a goal. The Rams came back strong, but just short, and the boys won it 4-3.
The Chargers entered the state tournament as the second seed, with their first game against a talented and physical Highland squad. Continuing with the crazy games, the boys came out with an early lead after Babinski scored two goals, Gilchrist scored one, and junior Maks Giermakowski ‘25 scored once to give the boys a 4-1 lead at half. The second half did not go as well for the Chargers as sophomore Gian Hwang ‘26 got a controversial second yellow card, and Highland capitalized scoring three times to tie the game up. Down a man and looking for any spark, the Chargers waited until extra time when sophomore Chase Jones ‘26 sped down the field and picked out Gilchrist who scored the game winning goal.
The semi finals were against none other than our district rivals, Hope Christian. A strange one o’clock kick off began the day and the Chargers came out well, with Gilchrist scoring yet another goal, this time assisted by junior Alex Jackson ‘25. Unfortunately, on an awkward free-kick the Huskies tied the game back up so it was all square at halftime. The boys started to move the ball around quickly in the second half and Jackson scored, assisted by Gilchrist. About ten minutes later, another unlucky goal was scored on the Chargers so the score was 2-2. An exhausting eighty minutes led to an even more tiring extra twenty minutes in overtime. Soon after, the boys were in penalties. The Hope goalkeeper showed up, saving many of the Academy penalties, and despite sophomore goalkeeper Alex Saiz ‘26 saving a few himself, the boys could not close it out and disappointingly lost to Hope Christian.
Although the girls and boys finished their seasons in a tough fashion, both teams had great winning seasons and fought hard every tournament they played in. Unfortunately, this was not the year for either team. However, next year, with five returning juniors on the girls side and 12 on the boys side, both teams will be stacked and motivated to win it all, with one thing surely in all of their minds: Beat Hope!
