Last August, Ryle High School boys soccer coach Stephen Collins stood on the home field at Clifford R. Borland Sr. Stadium following a 3-3 tie against Highlands and pondered the Raiders’ dilemma.
Collins’ team possessed some serious firepower with emerging forwards Diego Hoenderkamp, Josh Line and Brice Denigan. Hoenderkamp, especially, was proving lethal as a goal-scorer in the early going with four goals in the first five matches. Denigan also had a score.
With seven goals in four matches after a season-opening shutout loss, Ryle’s offense looked like it was starting to click against Highlands. But the Raiders were getting pushed around in the middle of the field, which had two negative effects: Too many offensive opportunities for the opposition and slower than ideal set-up for the Raiders’ offense.
“We were struggling in the middle and teams were kind of having their way with us and we started slow. I think we won once,” Collins said of last season’s poor start. “We needed to make a change so that we had a bigger presence there.”
What Collins needed was a confident, physical player to set a limit in the middle of the field, someone who would allow the opposition to go up to a certain point but no further. He needed a guy to figuratively draw a line in the sand. He called upon big, bad Josh Line to literally enforce it.
“No one will contest me in the air,” Line said. “I’m winning that ball.”
Collins said the Raiders became more efficient last season at flipping possession because Line became one of the best 50-50-ball winners in the region.
“Josh is a hard-nosed player. He’s really tough, and he can score from anywhere,” Collins said of Line, who also plays football at Ryle. “But after those first few games last year, I felt like we needed him more in the middle where he can throw his weight around. We needed someone to stop the other team and get us in our offense quicker.”
The answer was moving the 6-foot, 170-pound Line from forward to center midfield with the prevailing idea that he would take up more space in the middle while providing even more space up top for Hoenderkamp and Denigan to operate.
“Line was at the 10 spot and we moved him to the 6 and played with two center midfielders,” Collins said. “That righted the ship. You can go back and see how well we played after we made the change.”
Ryle began last season with one win in the first five matches en route to a 1-2-2 start. After moving Line to the middle, the Raiders won 18 of their next 20 and captured the 9th Region tournament championship. They made it all the way to the state tournament semifinals and finished 19-5-2 with 64 goals scored and 29 goals allowed. It was the most goals in a season for Ryle since 2018. It was the most wins since 2017.
The prime beneficiaries of Line moving back were striker Hoenderkamp and winger Denigan, who moved up among local scorers after the change. They combined for 40 goals and 17 assists. To put that into perspective, consider Ryle scored 47 goals as a team in 2021.
Hoenderkamp, dangerous in space in part because of superior foot skills, scored a region-high 24 goals and assisted on nine as a first-time starting junior for the Raiders. Denigan, a threat because of his tremendous speed, tallied 16 goals and added eight assists as a freshman.
“After they moved Josh back, it gave us more space for Diego to get the ball and get us going. It’s pretty easy to play off Diego,” Denigan said. “Now, I think we’ve got a pretty good line all the way through.”
Pun intended or not, Denigan is right about Line. Now a senior, Line scored four goals last season, including the shot of the year. It was an improvised boot from midfield at the start of the match that eluded a surprised goalkeeper giving Ryle a 1-0 lead in the first three seconds of a 9-1 win at Boone County.
“When I saw where the goalie was, I told Diego, ‘I’m going to shoot it.'” said Line. “He said, ‘Go for it.'”
The ball found the back of the net after sailing about 50 yards. No biggie for Line. As the football team’s placekicker, Line converted 31 of 34 point-after attempts and three of four field goal attempts and finished third on the team in scoring.
“That soccer play was kind of like a kickoff in football,” Line said. “I kicked it, and it just flew.”
Though he scored far fewer soccer goals than he’s capable, Line’s impact on team scoring last season was unparalleled, coach Collins said. Before moving Line to the middle of the field during the big switch, the Raiders were outscored, 9-7 in five matches. After the move, they outscored the opposition, 56-16. The Raiders scored at least four goals in a match six times and goalkeeper Landon Barth, now a senior, posted 10 shutouts during the dominating 18-2 stretch.
“Line won a lot of balls with his physicality and that got the offense going,” Collins said. “Yes, Hoenderkamp and Denigan are excellent, creative players. But without Line playing hard-nosed defense, we’re not going to do very well.”
A key was Line’s past experience at midfielder. He fit right into the spot at Ryle after knocking some heads at the position for his club team. The other critical elements were obvious scoring abilities on the part of Hoenderkamp and Denigan, now a sophomore.
“Having them makes the job way easier than it could be. Once I get it upfield, I know we can score some goals,” Line said. “All I have to do is control the middle, win some balls, and we’ll be fine.”
With Line holding the line, the Raiders are probably going to win a lot of matches, too.
Ryle begins the season Friday at Henry Clay High School against Frederick Douglass at the FCPS Soccer Showcase. Opening whistle is 6 pm.