Santa Fe High’s Beckham Sayer (right) goes for a header against Hobbs’ Juan Camacho during action Thursday at Albuquerque Academy. (Mike Sandoval/For the Journal)
Defending a state championship can be complicated enough, but for the Santa Fe Demons, it’s going to be especially daunting.
The Demons, who won the Class 5A state title last November with a dramatic overtime victory over Sandia, lost 13 players from that team — most to graduation, and two others, including the state’s leading scorer, Alex Waggoner, to soccer academies.
That makes 2022 a rebuild for Santa Fe, which fell 4-0 to Hobbs on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the Albuquerque Academy Invitational.
“We don’t have any elite players,” said Demons coach Chris Eadie. “We have a lot of hard working, good, technically skilled players. They’ve learned to play with each other, and the chemistry is developing, but we don’t have a goal scorer to go to in the clutch. We’re finding our identity still.”
Waggoner scored all four goals for Santa Fe in the championship game last November. But in the offseason, he bolted the high school ranks for the New Mexico United Academy.
One of the Demons’ top midfielders, Ivan Lozano, left for a soccer academy in Barcelona, Eadie said. Those two combined for nearly 200 points last season — 162 of them coming from Waggoner.
Santa Fe (4-2) already has lost more games this season than it did all of last year, but with 13 of the 19 players, including eight starters, having to be replaced, it’s perhaps understandable that the Demons will need time to coalesce .
“I think one of our strengths is, we’re a built team,” said Santa Fe senior Evan Eadie, the coach’s son and a Demons captain. “We don’t have a dynamic striker like Alex like we did last year, and just in general, we don’t have as much creativity. We’re gonna be about passing, possessing, building from the back.”
Santa Fe had never won state in boys soccer until last year.
One of the challenges facing the Demons is sustaining their success if they are to cultivate the type of program that continuously competes for trophies.
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“We have to have more than just the one year,” coach Eadie said. “And we have to build that through building and developing the younger players and getting them slowly into the mix at varsity.”
Eadie has made a point of asking eighth and ninth graders in the program to stick with the high school team as much as possible, and only participate in club soccer in the spring.
The Demons’ JV only dropped two games last season, and many of the faces from that side are in uniform with the varsity. Moreover, Santa Fe runs the same system throughout its program, something Eadie strongly believes eases the transition as players advance to the varsity level.
“The leaders we now have are relatively new to the role,” Eadie said. “And they’re starting to figure things out. But it takes time.”
Developing lineups and chemistry are two tasks that should be ongoing, and Santa Fe will require time, and games, to iron that out. The Demons will be at the Academy tournament through Saturday; they play Piedra Vista in the consolation bracket on Friday. Santa Fe’s only defeat last year came on this same high-grass field at Academy, which does not suit the Demons’ passing, possessing approach, Eadie said.
And Santa Fe will need to be more technically proficient with a superstar like Waggoner now absent.
“The think the key is to just get eveyone involved, get everyone shooting,” Evan Eadie said, adding, “I think today’s loss really showed a lot about how we need to keep composed in the back, keep communicating, just kind of in generally calm down. We need to take it step by step and not force anything.”
Academy and Hobbs meet at 2 pm Friday in one boys semifinal at Richard Harper Memorial Field. Sandia Prep faces Cleveland, also at 2 pm Friday, on the upper field.
The host Chargers whipped Piedra Vista 9-1 on Thursday. Sandia Prep downed Farmington 4-1, and Cleveland edged Los Alamos 1-0.
In the girls semis on Friday, both at noon, Academy plays Farmington at noon at Harper, and Hope Christian takes on Piedra Vista on the upper field.
The Chargers beat Sandia Prep in penalty kicks (4-3) Thursday night in the first round. Farmington blanked Hobbs 4-0, Hope blasted Los Alamos 8-1, and Piedra Vista defeated Carlsbad 2-1.
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