The Washington Demons will be getting a new season of high school soccer underway tonight. The Washington boys will begin their 2023 campaign by hosting the Columbus Wildcats. Not only are the Demons coming off their second consecutive winning season, but 12 wins and a trip to a substate semifinal last year is far and away the most successful season in program history. Leading goal-scorer Fredy Aguilar is back for his junior season, as are all-conference talents like sophomore Kevin Marcelino and juniors Emanuel Raymundo and Brayan Arreola. Head coach Sally Hart says chemistry is why this team started moving in the right direction last season and will stay on that upward trajectory.

“We have quite a strong core group of guys,” Hart says. “That junior class is really big for us. And I credit a lot of that to our youth soccer program. This group of guys has been playing together since about sixth grade, and having that teamwork and knowledge of how your teammates are going to favor either a left foot or right foot, or somebody’s better at a long ball, or somebody’s really skilled at moving through traffic, all those little things add up and we’re kind of seeing the products now.”

The Washington girls are also coming off a breakthrough season in 2022, as they went 10-7 in the first winning season in program history. One of the Demons’ dynamic goal scorers is back, as Giselle Marcelino looks to build on her team-high 25 goals last year. Washington will need to replace Greta Rothe’s 23 goals and find a new starting goalkeeper. The Demons kick things off by traveling to Central Lee this evening.