***THIS MATCH HAS BEEN POSTPONED***
It’s opening night for the Hillcrest Academy boys soccer team and the season starts with a trip to Cedar Valley Christian for a non-conference match. The Ravens have seen live action once this year, hosting Fort Madison Tuesday in Kalona for a scrimmage. Hillcrest was 9-6 a season ago, 5-5 in the Southeast Iowa Superconference, winning five of their last seven matches and appearing in the conference tournament finals. Hillcrest scored 25 goals last season and gave up 31. They are without their top three scorers from a season ago. Noah Miller led the team with nine goals in 2021, but will miss his senior year due to a knee injury. Will Kolck and John Hughes combined for 10 goals last season and have both moved on through graduation. Jorge Canchola is the top returner with three goals a season ago. Hughes was also the 2021 assist leader with four, the Ravens will turn to Andrew Starr and his three assists as a freshman. Aiden Krabill posted more than 1,100 minutes in goal with 114 saves and a 79% save percentage. Hillcrest Academy head boys soccer coach Marcus Miller joined the KCII PM Sports page and talked about his numbers and experienced players. “This year we are right around 18 players which is a nice increase and they are athletic. We’ll be a relatively young team. We have around seven or eight freshman and seven seniors and just a couple of sophomores and juniors, so we are top and bottom heavy. Aiden Krabill is back and he’s been starting several years for us in goal. Hard worker, great instincts and has improved a lot. Good experience. Jorge Canchola has played all four years and played club. He’ll play a key role for us this year. Grant Bender is another key returner back. He’ll be the anchor of the defense as the central defender. Collin Miller is a guy with a great left-footed cross that should have had more assists last year. He has steadily improved over the years. Gabe Bruns started getting more playing time last year and improved because of it.”
Cedar Valley Christian was 2-13 last season. The Huskies scored 12 goals and gave up 74 in 2021. They return their leading scorer Nati Kejella from a season ago with seven goals and their assist leader Sam Severson who had four as a freshman. These two teams met in Kalona last year with the Ravens getting a 1-0 win on April 24th on a Noah Miller goal behind Aaron Hershberger’s clean sheet. These teams have met five times in their history, all since 2012, with the Ravens an undefeated 5-0 in the series. They have outscored the Huskies through those five matches 18-1. Action starts tonight at 5p.m. at the Alburnett Martin Complex.