After one of their most impressive starts to a new season in years, the McKinleyville Panthers look like they could be one of the teams to beat in this year’s H-DNL.
The Mack boys are off to a 4-0 start on the soccer field, including a championship-game victory over Kelseylville at the Upper Lake Tournament on Saturday.
It was not just the first time the Panthers competed in the top division of the annual early-season tournament, but also the first time they took the championship.
“We’ve got a lot of returners back, so we’ve got a good little group,” McKinleyville head coach Brady Burtchett said. “We’re playing good right now. We’re not where we can be yet, but we’re playing good.”
And they’re doing so at both ends of the field.
Junior team captain Becker Rine has been setting the standard up front and has netted six goals in the opening four games, including one of two in a 2-0 win in Saturday’s championship game.
Sophomore Jude Scher also scored in that win, while the always dangerous Gaelen Creighton, a senior team captain, scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 win over Fort Bragg in Friday’s tournament semifinal.
The team’s defense gave up a couple of goals in each of the opening two games — a 5-2 win over Fortuna and a 3-2 win over Del Norte — but has shown steady improvement since then with back-to-back shutouts.
Senior Ayden Burtchett, the third team captain, has been anchoring the unit, with senior Lucas Vandermer posting the clean sheets between the posts, including a key penalty save against Kelseyville.
First-year senior Miles Day also has been impressing his coach in defense, while the central midfield pairing of Lucas Jones and Creighton have been setting the tone early in the campaign.
“They’re doing well together in the middle,” Brady Burtchett said. “They really have good chemistry.”
The early-season success has not gone unnoticed and the Panthers are currently the top-ranked team in the North Coast Section, according to MaxPreps.
But they will be tested in their league opener against a Fortuna team that has been setting a high standard here on the North Coast for the past decade and more.
“It should be a good game,” Brady Burtchett said. “They’re well-coached. It should be an interesting start for us.”
It will also be a good test for the Huskies, who gave up five goals to the Panthers when the two schools faced off on Aug. 21.
Both teams are still finding their feet early in the new season, but if early indications are anything to go by, the Panthers look like legitimate league contenders this fall.
“I think as a team we’re getting better and better,” the McKinleyville coach added. “I think we’ll be a pretty hard team to beat this year.”
Tuesday’s kick off at McKinleyville is set for 3:30 p.m.
