The varsity girls soccer team finished up their year this past weekend, capping off their season with an appearance in the state finals and a final record of 17-5-1. Here is a brief recap of what happened in this amazing season.
The season kicked off with the Metro Tournament and a win against Albuquerque High, however, in the two games following, they faced some top 5A teams and suffered two tough losses. Sporting a roster of 13 freshmen and sophomores, this youthful team needed these couple of games to prepare themselves for what the rest of the season would hold. But, after this somewhat slow start the team quickly caught on fire, demolishing their opponents in their following games and facing off against Sandia Prep in the finals of the Academy Invitational. After a hard-fought battle sophomore Cambria Tero ‘27 was able to find Kai Gehres ‘27 who shot and scored the goal that would end up being the decider to win 1-0, returning the Invitational trophy back to Academy for the first time in a couple of years.
Following this tournament the team went on a seven-game unbeaten streak, beginning district with three wins in three games. During this streak, they also faced off against 4A competition Los Alamos and won decisively with a score of 3-0 with goals from senior Layla Logan ‘25, junior Isabella Barnes ‘26, and sophomore and leading goal scorer Selena Broussard ‘27 who ended the season netting an impressive 21 goals.
As district play continued the team faced off against Hope Christian, who have been the dominant powerhouse in the past couple of years; unfortunately, they lost both games 0-3 and 0-1 respectively, closing out district in 2nd place with a record of 6-2.
With a well-deserved number two seeding entering the state tournament, the team was poised to prove themselves at the state level. Right away they proved that they were not messing around, emphatically beating Moriarity 6-0 in the quarterfinals and then once again beating Los Alamos in the semifinals, this time 2-0 with a pair of goals from Kai Gehres ‘27, on a cold and slushy November afternoon.
After these two dominant performances, the girl’s team was set to play rivals Hope Christian in the finals of the state tournament, hoping to get revenge after being defeated in the finals by Hope the year before. Unfortunately, Hope started strong, netting a goal early in the game that would prove unsurmountable for the Chargers despite their best efforts, including a shot that hit the post. Although the season ended sadly, the Chargers had a lot to be proud of with their dominance this year and being the 2nd best team in 4A. With such a young team, the future is incredibly bright for this squad.