As August rolls around, so does the high school soccer season filled with many games and practices squished into a short 10-12 week season. But, the Farmington boys’ soccer program came into tryouts ready to go and with high expectations after coming off a 2016 season that saw the Tigers have a best ever varsity program record of 11-8 and a birth into their second ever 1AA section final game. After coming off a heartbreaking loss to Owatonna in last year’s section final game, the Tigers come in hungry for success all led by senior captains Zach Berg (2016 All-Conference player), Cristian Collazo, and Corey McKnight and junior captain Cole Eckert. The Tigers also return six other varsity members including senior Cam Nelson, juniors Ethan Harvey and Jonas Mellang, and sophomores Alex Kiage (2016 All-Conference honorable mention player), Ben Lessert, and Gavin Watkinson. Farmington fills out the rest of their roster with seniors Luke Blood, Chevy Perdomo, Jake Peterson, and Sam Shockley, juniors Roberto Alvarez, Mikey Bratsch, Ryley Breczinski, Casey Christensen, Sam Olivares, Jordan Pearson, Tanner Reed, Caleb Rollag, and Carter Watkinson, and sophomore Johnny Gideon. The team will be looking for strong contributions from both returning and new varsity members to potentially reach a section final game for the second straight year.

Farmington High School boys’ soccer began their 2017 season this past Thursday against a familiar Owatonna team and finished their week down at Rochester Century on Saturday. With both being section opponents, positive results were needed to gain confidence and show the Tigers’ position within the section. Starting the season with a tough test against Owatonna was exactly what the Tigers needed to gauge their position within the section for this season. With what already felt like a section final game with the intensity, physicality, and chippy nature that both teams brought, the Tigers earned a much deserved 1-1 tie after overtime. The Tigers fell behind in the first half off of a rebound that fell to the feet of Owatonna forward Nate Smith 24 minutes into the game. The Tigers did not hang their heads though as players and coaches felt that they outplayed Owatonna from a possession and attacking chances standpoint throughout the first half.

Tigers entered the second half putting on lots of pressure and dominating a large majority of the second half as well. Tension could be felt from both sidelines as Tiger senior Corey McKnight was taken down in the box to earn a penalty kick. Cristian Collazo stepped up to take the shot and Owatonna keeper Tyler Akermann made a huge save to keep the score at 1-0. Not short after, Owatonna found themselves on a breakaway against Farmington keeper Zach Berg, and Berg came up with a massive save to keep the Tigers in the game. As the game wore down into the final minutes, coaches and players felt like a Tiger goal was coming, and with 55 seconds left, the well-deserved goal came. Attacking midfielder Roberto Alvarez gathered the ball in the middle of the field, got by an Owatonna player and ripped a left footed shot from 30 yards out to the far post that looked destined to go in. Akermann made another great save, but McKnight followed up the play well and buried his chance and scored the Tigers’ first goal of the season in dramatic fashion to tie the game at 1-1. As both teams had tired legs, the overtime clock wore down to zero with both teams feeling a 1-1 tie was a great start to their respective seasons. Tiger keeper Zach Berg finished the game with 11 big saves to keep the dangerous Owatonna forwards at bay along a strong defensive performance from a backline made up of Alex Kiage, Cam Nelson, Tanner Reed, and Gavin Watkinson.

On Saturday, the Tigers travelled down to Rochester Century to play another section opponent that the Tigers recently lost to in a preseason scrimmage 2-1. The result dramatically changed though as the Tigers took it to Century and played a complete overall game to take a 5-1 win. About 12 minutes into the game, the Tigers earned a corner kick where captain Cole Eckert played a beautiful cross into the box that was finished off by a strong header from Jonas Mellang to cap off Mellang’s first ever varsity goal. Not even 2 minutes later, captain Corey McKnight made a great run with the ball along the wing where he played a well driven cross into a sprinting Johnny Gideon who volleyed in his first ever varsity goal to take the Tigers up 2-0. With some much needed saves from keeper Zach Berg, the Tigers rolled into halftime 2-0. Even with the lead, coaches got on the players at halftime to keep up the effort, and the Tigers responded brilliantly at the start of the second half. Within the first 4 minutes of the second half, the Tigers had an impressive 4-0 lead. The third goal came from a scramble inside the box where Eckert found Mellang who finished off his second goal of the game. Within the next couple of minutes, Tigers had a nice build-up play that found Eckert with the ball about 25 yards out from the goal. With teammates shouting to shoot, Eckert smartly chose to pass the ball out wide to McKnight where Eckert was rewarded his first ever varsity goal from another great cross from the senior captain McKnight. The Tigers finished off the game when Alex Kiage found Caleb Rollag in the midfield. Rollag took a shot from 25 yards out that deflected into the corner of the net for yet another first ever varsity goal from Rollag. With another good performance in the defensive end that saw Berg come up with 12 saves, the Tigers completed a commanding 5-1 win to cap off a great first week.

The Tigers have a busy week ahead that will include 4 games against New Prague on Monday, Rochester John Marshall on Tuesday, Richfield on Thursday, and Park of Cottage Grove on Friday. Coaches hope the Tigers will build off the strong start in hopes of having lots of confidence and momentum going into conference play starting the first week of school. Come support the Tigers on Monday at the FHS stadium at 7:00 pm and Friday at the stadium at 3:00 pm.