By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– Last Fall, the Stayton Boys Soccer team ended the Curse. They brought home that elusive State Championship, their first official since 2010 and first since the Covid-Shortened season State Title in 2021.
But now. It’s time to get back to work.
The bullseye is still there. It’s Stayton, when was the last time they’ve been truly an ‘underdog’?, they’re going to get everyone’s best shot regardless. But, perhaps a little more so now that they got that moniker of ‘Defending State Champs’ to their name.
Staying healthy was the biggest thing in being the difference of winning it all last year and two years ago when the injury bug bit them in the State Playoffs. And despite losing some big time hitters like Player of the Year in Isaiah Dixon and First Team All-State Forwards in Nick Pelayo and Johnny Garcia, the Eagles have put in the work this offseason. Summer training, as they did on Wednesday, a handful of Summer League games like on Tuesday night against 5A Lebanon and several of their ballplayers playing with the OVF Club Soccer program just to bridge last year into this year.
“I think we’re going to take the parts that we have, and we still have a lot of good pieces that I think we can use if we can mold it together. We’re really experienced, we have a lot of good experienced players, but we’re really a cohesive group. A lot of them played in a lot of games this Summer, over the last year-and-a-half they played a lot of games together, so that’s really positive. There’s a really good chance of getting collective success if we keep working on things we need to adjust and stay healthy.” said Stayton Head Coach Chris Shields.
“Every since the Fall, most of the Varsity team hasn’t stopped training, we’ve been mainly playing Club and I feel like we’re ready for the season,” adds Miguel Ceballos. “This year, we just got to work harder. Last year, we had Johnny and them, which helped a lot. But since they’re gone, it’s going to be a huge role for guys like me and other people to fill. I just feel like we just need to work together, work as a team to hold the same record and win the State Title again.”
Ceballos is one of the midfielders returning for Stayton. He’s joined by defender Ruben Bell, who came on late in the season last year coming off an injury. Jose Navarro, the only All-State kid returning being a first-team defender will help Bell in the backline.Cesar Perez and Josiah Dessieux will be fixtures up front offensively for the Eagles entering this season.
One of the new faces filling the void left by graduation is Logan Butenschoen. For the third year in a row, Stayton will have a new goalie in net on a full-time basis as they had Roman Gould two years ago, Ty Williams last year and now Butenschoen. But Butenschoen learned a lot from backing up Willams last year as the incoming Eagle senior will hopefully continue the strong goalie play for Stayton into this season.
“It’s a great culture, so coming in last year it was super easy to fit in with the guys and I made a lot of friends. It’s a little bit of pressure, but it’s a lot of fun,” Butenschoen said. “We lost five really good players, but why can’t we do it again? As long as we put in the work and be clutch in those games, then why not us?”
Stayton will host a jamboree on August 27 before kicking off the season September 1 at home against Cottage Grove.
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Photos By Jeremy McDonald
