Each year, one thing holds true for area boys soccer in the Northern Lakes Conference and at the local Class 3A sectional.
The champion in each will be severely tested.
Shawn McCuen, who is beginning his 29th year as Concord’s head coach, has been in the middle of those league and state tournament battles and enjoyed a lot of success. The Minutemen, who are ranked 10th in the preseason coaches poll, have won three straight sectional titles and were one win away from going to state two years ago.
McCuen expects more heart-pounding games this year in the area.
“As always, both our conference and sectional will be extremely tough,” said McCuen, who has led his program to three straight (3A) sectional titles.
“Goshen is returning almost their entire team from last year where they won the conference and were dominant all year long.
“Northridge was young and brought back all that experience and talent with a year under their belt. Warsaw is always very strong and other programs continue to grow and get stronger each year.
“We will need to be prepared and execute each night for the entire game to compete and then that may not be enough. However, I believe in my players and the pride they have in our Patch and I know we will be up to the challenges.”
Concord must find a way to achieve more success this year without Yurem Castro, who totaled 41 goals and 14 assists the last two years.
“We lost a great deal of talent and experience,” McCuen said.
“We will need to rely heavily on our returners to be leaders and they will need to grow as we go.
Among the returning letterwinners are seniors Jeremy Cruz, Luis Barajas, Erick Rodriguez and Junior Herrera. Cruz, Barajas and Rodriguez were each all-conference selections last year. Cruz scored 18 goals and Herrera allowed only 15 goals in 19 games.
Defending NLC champion Goshen, which is ranked 5th (3A), will be a formidable opponent again this year.
The RedHawks return 14 players from a 2025 squad, which finished 15-2-1 overall and 7-0 in the league.
Back for the RedHawks are Brandon Alvarez-Lopez, Yurem Hernandez (7 goals, 6 assists), Andy Guzman, Bentley Medina (two goals, four assists), Trenton Clark, Sebastian Chavoyo, Juan Juarez and Caleb Cervantes (8 goals, three assists).
Hernandez, Alvarez-Lopez, Guzman and Medina made first team all-conference, while Clark and Chavoyo made the honorable mention team.
“One of our team’s goals this season is to compete for the NLC title,” said Goshen coach Viratham Mounsithiraj. “Also as a team, we want to play an attractive style of soccer and make a deep run in the state tournament.”
Northridge lost to graduation standouts Julius Esquivias and Tonino Porpiglia. Esquivias finished with 15 goals and 16 assists in 2025 and was a first-team All-State selection. Porpiglia totaled four goals and six assists and was an all-conference selection for the third time.
“We graduated two outstanding players in Julius Esquivias and Tonino Porpiglia, so there are certainly some big shoes to fill,” said Northridge coach Lawrence Baltazar, whose squad finished 9-7-1 overall and 4-3 in the NLC last year.
“That said, I believe this group is ready for the challenge.
Among the returning letterwinners from last year’s team are first team all-league selections Landon Garcia and John Michel. Garcia totaled nine goals and eight assists last year.
“We’re a young tean, but we’re also battle-tested,” Baltazar said. “We have good depth throughout the roster, and I expect us to compete with everyone on our schedule.
“One of our biggest strengths is that we return our entire back line, which should provide stability defensively, while our younger attacking players continue to build chemistry.”
On the varsity roster, Baltazar said there are some transfer students, along with several underclassmen who weren’t part of the varsity team last year.
“I’m excited to see how this group comes together over the course of the season,” Baltazar said.
“The Northern Lakes Conference, along with our sectional, is once again one of the toughest in the state.”
New faces will be counted on heavily at NorthWood where Jager Bute (11 goals, nine assists) and Gustavo Dosal (five goals, two assists) are among the several players who have to be replaced.
“We graduated 13 seniors from last year’s team which includes most of our goal production,” said NorthWood coach Kyle Dijkstra, who led the Panthers to a 10-7-2 overall record and 3-4 NLC mark a year ago.”
Dijkstra will rely heavily on the experienced core of Ben Bodach, Evander Magana, Lucas Mullett, Sam Hoover and Vince Sims.
“We have a solid core group of returning players who will need to gel as a group and take on more important roles this season,” Dijkstra said.
“We’re looking forward to competing in a tough soccer conference in the NLC and a strengthened sectional lineup that now includes Mishawaka Marian.”
Elkhart, which is ranked 19th (3A), made school history last year, as the Lions captured the school’s first Northern Indiana Conference title.
Miguel Gallegos (26 goals, eight assists) was among the players lost to graduation and the challenge to repeat will be on the shoulders of some younger, less experienced players.
“The team may experience some growing pains early in the season as we replace a highly talented senior class from last year,” said Elkhart coach Todd Sheely, who his team to a 14-3 overall record and 6-1 NIC mark last season.
“One of the biggest questions will be where the goals will come from, as several key offensive contributors have graduated.”
Impact play needs to come from returning letterwinners Karter Lopez, Landon Baker, Ian Krempec and Nolan Ramirez (5 goals, six assists).
“This is a hard working, committed group that will be ready when opportunities arise,” Sheely said.
“As the season progresses and the players gain experience together, the team’s chemistry and confidence should grow. If they develop as expected, they will be ready to compete.”
Penn, which is ranked 11th (3A), figures to be motivated by how its season ended last year, as the Kingsmen fell to Concord, on PK’s in the sectional final at Northridge. The game was scoreless before the dramatic ending.
Several players that experienced that painful loss are back for Penn. In that group are Lucas Eshowsky, Evan Wilson, Ayedin Strantz, Dawson Smith, Duke Kryder, Chase Pinckert, Asher Allen and Joey Rottinghaus.
“As always, our goal is to win conference, sectional and make a deep run in the postseason,” said Penn coach Kyle Zaber, whose squad finished 14-5 overall and 5-2 in the NIC in 2025.
“But in order to do those things we have to be disciplined and bring our highest standards to every game and every training session, while not losing a sense of fun within that work.
“I’m lucky to have amazing kids to coach and several returning varsity players.”
Zaber embraces the tough competition in the NIC.
“I love playing against the teams in the NIC,” he said. “Each team presents unique challenges and requires us to be fully prepared each and every game,” the Penn coach said.
A year ago, Elkhart Christian, Bethany Christian and Trinity Greenlawn shared the Hoosier Plains Conference title with each at 3-1 in the league.
The Eagles and Bruins enter the season having to do shuffling with their lineup.
“We graduated a two-year starter in goal (Graham Schrock), lost two central defenders (Kian Hibbard and James Ramirez), along with our two most productive (offensive) players (Caleb Barnard and Brayden Grose),” said ECA coach Brandon McLemore. “Our back line is looking different than expected as two planned starters transferred out in the past few weeks.”
But there is talent and experience even with those player losses. Those returning players include Ace Haviland (two goals, two assists), Matthew Corona (two goals, two assists), Lucas Alvarez-O’Connell (two goals, one assist), Tatum Tallman (four assists) and Griffin Hartman.
“We have nine seniors and their leadership has been impressive over the summer and into the first week of training,” McLemore said.
“The senior class is made of players who can play multiple positions and with that comes challenges in creating consistency, but it also allows us some freedom in the changing the look of our attack and defensive set up.”
Bethany Christian coach Tony Janzen agrees with McLemore’s assessment of the HPC.
“The conference will be very competitive this year,” Janzen said. “I think four out of five teams feel they have a chance to win the conference.”
When it comes to his own team, Janzen has pieces to replace from last year’s squad that finished 11-6-2 overall and lost to Leo, 3-2, in a Class 2A sectional final.
“We graduated a big senior class with a lot of experience, so we’ll be a younger group this year,” Janzen said.
“Looking forward to seeing how they grow and develop throughout the season.”
Experience will be provided by Orion Nice (five goals, three assists), Jacob Bontrager, Layton Rothshank and Steven Reiff.
North of the border, Edwardsburg made it to the regional championship for the first time in the program’s history last year.
Coach Sean Jesse also has high expectations for the 2026 squad.
“We believe we have a solid enough team to get back to the regional championship and hopefully this year come out on the winning side,” said Jesse, who led his team to a 17-2-1 overall record last year and to the Wolverine Conference championship (6-0-1).
“We do have a challenging district though. On paper, St. Joe may be the team to beat and Lakeshore, Vicksburg, Niles and Sturgis are always tough.”
The talented foursome of Brayden Fischer, Aleck Rodriguez, Chance Jacobs and Law Gates return to lead the Eddies.
Jesse feels the Wolverine Conference is a very strong league with several championship contenders.
“On paper, the champion should come from either us, Plainwell or Sturgis,” Jesse said. “Paw Paw and Vicksburg will also be good teams and Three Rivers, Otsego and Niles always play everyone tough.”