Looking at the new 2025 season for the men’s and women’s soccer teams for Eureka College, they are in it to win it.
Last season, the women’s team finished a 2-12-1 season, while the men’s team finished with a 3-13-2. Both teams are wanting to win it all this season.
Colin Nelson, the men’s soccer second team head coach, had moved from being an assistant coach to the 2nd team coach beginning this season. Nelson stated that the group of players he has with him this season is very young.
“I want to see a level of maturity in the younger players, not that we don’t have players that come in and hit the ground running. Maturity being from a college athletes standpoint with intensity in training,” Said Nelson.
Talking about having a young team can be challenging for teams with maturity. Players want to come from all around and win games. The goal for this team is to grow in a level of maturity.
“For the top group, we have high expectations. The expectation is not only getting to the playoffs, we have a group that can definitely compete, even though we are a bit younger,” Said Nelson.
As Nelson has become the men’s second team coach, he has an expectation to push the players into the top group. Pushing them to the limit in making them the best players they are for this team of Eureka Men’s Soccer Red Devils.
With this team being around 40 players in the last season, coaches had made the decision to push it up to a whopping 56 players on a roster. This pushes each and every player to play their best, with 6 of those players being goalkeepers, 3 per team, 1 game.
Each player is competing for a spot in one of the 11 spots on the field, 5 players fighting for one spot.
31 players are freshmen, in addition to 12 sophomores, 6 juniors, 7 seniors. This is a young season for the men’s because of how many freshmen were brought in. A few of the juniors and seniors are transfers this season as well.
Owen Piech is a junior on the men’s first team. He started his first season with the men’s team his freshman year in 2023.
“Full of ups and downs on this team the past three years, but a very unique experience. Coming in my freshman year, I played more minutes than most freshmen coming into a program,” Peich said.
The team had gone through a lot with incoming freshmen and the upperclassmen.
“We had a very determined group of guys. We got limited by the yellow card rule and barely made it into the tournament. The coach had to add a few more games so we could make it to the tournament.,” Peich said.
Shifting to the women’s team with Coach Reece Scragg, he has higher expectations with the girls this season. Although last season didn’t go as great as he had hoped, this season looks better with a higher roster.
“Preseason had a lot of bright moments, obviously being a young team, still new. I think we are in a better position in comparison to last year, the growth that we continue to talk about as a team,” said Scragg.
It is already looking like a better season for the new team, with the record being 1-2 so far, and scrimmages being a 1-1. The Lady Devils are looking a lot better for this upcoming season.
“Pleased overall with what we showed, hopefully gives us an idea of what we need to do when we move forward,” said Scragg.
After looking at preseason and these past two games, the women’s team is looking towards a playoff season.
Progress is being made from new comers and returners. The women’s team has 7 freshmen, 11 returners, and 2 transfers. There are 20 players on this team’s roster this season, including 6 sophomores, 2 juniors, 4 seniors.
This team is looking at some challenging schools on the schedule this season. They are looking at Webster, Knox, Westminster, Spalding, Greenville, and Lyon. These schools gave the women’s team a beating last year. This year, they are looking to improve their previous record against these schools.
“I’m very hopeful that we are able to do things that they have never seen in this program before, that has always been the goal here over the last 2 years I have been here,” said Scragg.
Scragg had started off as a coach for the women’s team in 2023 and has made a change in the women’s program here at Eureka College. Some players have made the decision to leave after last season due to injury or transferring out for their major. This can leave a lot of room for this program as Scragg has stated before, he does not want more than 25 on a roster for the program.
Seeing these changes be made for both teams in numbers and age, these programs are going to be bigger than previous years at Eureka College.
Looking at both the men’s and women’s teams here, their seasons are looking great with full rosters, hard players, and both have the hunger to win.
