“It means so much,” senior Aiden Cavanaugh said. “We’ve been through a lot these last couple years. We took an early exit last year, which was really disappointing. Things weren’t going our way. This year, we just came in with the mindset that we were going to give it our all every day, every practice. It’s just such a great group of guys, I’m so happy to share this experience with them.”

The Minutemen were the only St. Paul public school to make it to state in the 2000s. This decade has been better for the St. Paul City Conference. Humboldt played in the Class 1A state tournament in 2011, and Como Park went five straight years, from 2012-16. Harding won a section title last year.

Now, the school that started it is back, and the St. Paul City Conference is on an eight-year streak of state appearances.

“I think it’s a reflection of what’s going on in this conference,” Albornoz said. “We have great coaches, [Alex] Zadini in Highland, [Matt] Osborne in Humboldt, [Jonah] Fields in Como. So you see the city, most of the teams in our conference are single-A, but I don’t think that makes them less. Those are some really strong teams.”

Central, the only Class 2A team in the conference to play at state, improved to 17-0-1 this season with the section title win. The Minutemen were ranked No. 5 in the final state coaches’ poll, and had what was officially a 3-3 draw with top-ranked Stillwater, but they won on penalty kicks in a season-opening tournament.

But being a city school often means being overlooked, for the most part, in the Twin Cities soccer community.

“It’s a tough conference, and I don’t think people realize how hard it is,” Cavanaugh said. “We were really happy with going undefeated this year, because it’s so easy to drop one game to really any team in the conference.”

The hope now, Albornoz said, is to get some more attention for the kids.

“It feels good being able to go out there and show, hey, here’s what’s going on in the city; why don’t you look at what we’re doing?” Albornoz said. “Hopefully we can get some of the kids scholarships and we can get them seen at by colleges. Because that’s the real ultimate goal, right?”

The theme of the season has been redemption for Central. From last year’s early section exit to the losses in the finals the last couple of years before that, the Minutemen want to show they won’t be overlooked any longer. Playing at state should help that.

“It just feels so good to put the city on the map, show everybody,” Cavanaugh said.