Wildcats eyeing return to state

It was a first for the Columbus boys? soccer team in 2014.

The team reached the state tournament for the first time last year, and despite losing its top goal scorer from last season, the team has prepared itself for another run in 2015.

For the Wildcats, it all starts with practice this season.

?I think we can use it a lot,? Columbus senior Zack King said. ?We know what it takes to be there, so we can practice like we did in the weeks coming up to state last year. I think we can make it back.?

Sophomore Ruben Paz, who was third on the team in goals scored last season with five, and is looking to take a role, said he will be using the experience of preparing for Dyersville-Beckman (who knocked Columbus out of the state tournament 2-0) to help him take an expanded role this year.

?Personally, I want to take it game by game,? Paz said. ?I have the mentality of keeping and making every practice like (before) Dyersville-Beckman and keeping that intensity up.?

The experience of getting to last year?s state tournament was exhilarating for King and the rest of the athletes, but also for head coach Luis Cacho, who said it?s up to the team how far they go this season.

?I don?t see any obstacles in our way,? Cacho said. ?When we set in our mind that we are going to accomplish a goal, we are going to do it. We?ll go game by game, and if the opportunity comes, we?ll go to state. Everyone wants to and I want to, because it was such a good experience. We want to go back there again.?

The Wildcats enter the season without 2014?s leading scorer, Alex Cruz, who finished tied for third in the state, regardless of class, with 29 goals, and tied for sixth in Class 1A with 15 assists.

The next highest scorer on the team was Bryan Santiago (nine goals, six assists), who also graduated.

Losing that kind of production is difficult for any team to weather, but Cacho said a different mindset will be in store for the Wildcats in 2015.

?It?s going to be the entire team,? Cacho said. ?Last year, Alex probably scored 75 percent of our goals last year. We are going to change that philosophy and distribute the ball to everybody, and everyone should be hungry to score goals. We just have to go to our basics and work hard every day and that?s how we?ll do it.?

With the entire team focusing on helping out wherever they can, King noted that this team is working hard to be even better than last year.

?This year, we are going to have something we didn?t have last year,? King said. ?All the players are going to push their hardest. Last year we had some players slack or walk, and this year everyone is pushing themselves so they don?t have to walk during games. They can all sprint to the ball when we need them to.?

Fresh off the state tournament, Cacho knows there will be many teams that are going to give them their best this season in the conference play.

?Every team we play in our conference is going to be ready for us,? Cacho said. ?Since we went to state, everyone is going to be saying, ?Columbus Junction went to state; we need to be ready for them.? We just have to work harder to get over it.?

Columbus will open its season on April 9, when they travel to face rival Wapello, before an early-season test against Danville the next day.