Demons show promise, room for improvement
Santa Fe High prepares to defend its first state championship title
Chris Eadie entered July unsure of what this year’s edition of Santa Fe High boys soccer would look like.
The past two weeks told the fourthyear Demons head coach a lot, and he liked what he saw out of what likely will be the 2022 edition of the Demons through a series of scrimmages and camps over the past two-plus weeks — until the past two days.
Without star forward Alex Waggoner and star defender Ivan Lozano, both of whom are playing for soccer academies this season, Santa Fe High had a lot of questions about how good it might be at defending its Class 5A title. But the Demons showed they might not be as easy a matchup as opponents might think, going 6-3-2 in scrimmages this month.
“When we are at full strength and playing the system well and embracing our roles, we’re going to be a pretty tough team to beat,” Eadie said.
That good vibe took a bit of a hit Tuesday and Wednesday. The team, which was missing two of its three returning seniors and a few other potential starters, struggled during a camp at Rio Rancho Cleveland, losing scrimmages to Albuquerque’s Atrisco Heritage Academy, Volcano Vista and Cibola.
The culminating loss to Cibola was mired by several frustrated Santa Fe High players losing their cool, playing overly physical and getting into the faces of their opponents. That prompted Eadie to pull his team off the field with about 15 minutes left, he said.
Cibola took advantage of the Demons’ mistakes, especially with turnovers, and scored three quick goals that took the Demons out of their game. After calming down at half, the team played better — until another
mistake led to a fourth Cougars goal.
“It just started to fall apart,” Eadie said. “They’re young, especially the group out there today. It was something that many of us didn’t feel good about.”
Eadie elected to pull his team from the tournament in lieu of conducting more individual training as the team prepares for the start of the season, which begins with practices Aug. 8. Despite the sour taste left by the Cleveland camp, Eadie said he is cautiously optimistic about his team.
It won six of its first eight scrimmages, but what Eadie liked about Santa Fe High’s performance was the chemistry the players showed in their first time working together as a unit. He said players adapted to new roles and tweaks to the Demons’ system in the wake of losing Waggoner and his state-best 73 goals, as well as a defensive stalwart in Lozano, who was a Class 5A All-State player.
Santa Fe High even beat Las Cruces Centennial, considered one of the top teams in 5A this year, by a 2-0 score, although coach Eadie noted both teams were missing some key players. Still, the outcome revealed that the Demons were not going to be pushovers.
“[Junior varsity head coach Matthais Sayer] and I weren’t expecting the kind of success we had early on,” he said. “We weren’t expecting this team to jell that quickly and play as well as they have been playing up until a couple of days ago.”
Eadie pointed to the three returning seniors — Max Anderson, Owen Lock and Evan Eadie, the coach’s son — as vital cogs to Santa Fe High’s success. Eadie will play more of an attacking midfielder, while Anderson and Lock will play a big role on the Demons’ defense. Both of them played on the back line last year, so coach Eadie said they will provide a wealth of experience to a group that will undergo on-the-job training.
“Max is moving into the defensive center-[midfield] spot — at last that’s what it looks like right now,” Chris Eadie said. “He’s the strongest physically of all of our players. Evan’s grown a lot and fights for the ball. Owen was one of our fastest players on the team last year, but you wouldn’t have known it. And he’s gotten even faster after track season.”
Surrounding the trio will be a team of mostly junior-varsity players moving up a level, but they were a part of a team that went 10-2 last year at the subvarsity level. One thing the Cleveland camp showed, Eadie noted, was the inexperience the team has. That showed in a loss to Volcano Vista, a team the Demons beat in the Class 5A quarterfinals last fall.
The Hawks were aggressive and lived off of Demons mistakes, especially in their own backfield. Coach Eadie talked to the team afterward about not letting teams push them around, and he said the Demons might have taken a more aggressive approach against Cibola too far.
He said about six varsity players were missing from the camp, including Evan Eadie, so there were a lot of players getting their first taste of varsity experience. Coach Eadie said the Demons never competed with what he expects to be his full varsity lineup all summer long, but the growth he and his coaching staff saw left a lasting impression.
“I was pleasantly surprised and very excited about the season,” coach Eadie said. “If teams are thinking we’re not going to be that good this year, that’s fine. Let them.”