Despite being the back-to-back region champion, Ryle enters the 2024 boys soccer season with a lot to prove.
After a 22-win season, the team graduated 10 seniors and was recently informed their returning leading scorer Brice Denigan would not be returning to the program for his junior season.
Despite the change, the team showed no signs of letting up as they opened the season on Tuesday with a 2-0 home victory over Dixie Heights.
“We play with a lot of passion,” said junior midfielder Marcos Hoenderkamp. “I think we’ve always had a lot of skill and I believe that we all just link up very well together.”
Many in the region know the Hoenderkamp last name, Marcos’ older brother Diego one of those 10 graduates and one of three to continue their playing career at Northern Kentucky University along with Josh Line and Landon Barth.
Adding another chink in the armor is being without their longtime head coach Stephen Collins as he recovers from knee surgery.
“The key to this game was getting better as the match went on,” coach Austin Howard said. “We lost a lot of incredible players last season and we got used to scoring plenty of
goals. Despite that I think we’re a program that wants to improve each game.”
Throughout the opening half, possession between the Raiders and Colonels often switched although the ball found itself on Ryle’s offensive half more times than not.
It looked as though both teams would enter halftime tied at zero before Ryle was awarded a free kick just outside of the box with nine minutes to play. With great field position on the left hand side, sophomore Cooper Neace lofted an almost untouchable ball into the back of the net to give the Raiders a 1-0 advantage entering the second half.
“Every time someone hits a high free kick like that it’s difficult to stop,” said Colonels coach Trey Crone. “It was unlucky but I think we really played with a lot of composure throughout that first half.”
Finding that breakthrough before the half shifted the momentum of play in the second half, especially for a program who historically excels at putting the ball in the back of the net.
Last season, the Raiders found the back of the net 95 times with 64 of those contributions coming from three players no longer with the team.
The Colonels made pushes throughout the match and found stability out of the back from junior defender Trevor Bolte who led the team in goals and assists last season.
While both teams had their fair share of chances in the second half, Ryle controlled the majority of the possession which frequently forced Dixie to play out of their own defensive third.
Blocking or deflecting most shots, the Raiders’ back line made it difficult for the Colonels’ opposition to test the goal.
“Having a young team this year and especially a bunch of sophomores, I think they handled the pressure defensively pretty well,” said Howard. “That’s the first positive on that but there’s still a long way to go heading forward.”
As the final minutes ticked away, Hoenderkamp broke into the scoring column after connecting off a straight line pass from junior Peyton Ingalls with two minutes remaining to seal the win for the Raiders.
“Shoutout to Peyton, that was all him,” said Hoenderkamp. “I was just in the right place at the right time and I’m always glad to have a goal on the sheet.”
Hoenderkamp’s goal looked to rejuvenate a Raiders sideline who had been building off their play throughout the match. While the stat sheet will mark it as a win, Howard and staff will view it as a step in the right direction.
“Part of this match was just setting ourselves up the right way with how we mark and attack,” Howard said. “They (Dixie) play with a little different system and our guys did a really great job of understanding where the space was and executing our direction which is a good sign out of our young team.”
Although the Colonels will begin their season with a loss, Crone isn’t too worried about the team’s potential heading forward. While the Raiders have to deal with a lot of turnover due to graduation, so did the Colonels, even more in fact with 14 seniors on last year’s team.
“We’re young, so we took a lot of big strides from the preseason,” Crone said. “We had a couple mistakes here and there but we’ll clean those up and I think by midseason and postseason we’ll be heading in the right direction.”
With three games still left to play this week, Dixie has plenty of opportunity to erase Tuesday night’s shutout. The Colonels will face Bishop Brossart at home Thursday night followed by two road matchups against Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station.
For Ryle, they’ll take on Paul Laurence Dunbar on the road Friday night followed by a quick turnaround Saturday afternoon at Tates Creek.
“No matter the result, Friday and Saturday will be huge for us because it will see where we’re at.” Howard said. “Playing against some talented teams across the state are the best ways to do that.”