With an 11-4 record so far this season, the Patriot boys’ soccer team is slowly approaching districts. 

Led by head coach Kyle Forthaus and assistant coach Dave Davis, South will host districts this year alongside teams such as Marquette, Eureka, Kirkwood, SLUH, Parkway West, Ladue, and Lafayette. With only a few more weeks to go, South is preparing for the start of districts in early November

“I’m excited to play some competition and see how good we really are,” said senior captain Ethan Carroll.

With such a strong season so far, winning against big teams like Eureka, Seckman, Affton, etc., people have been wondering what has changed to have led South to their success. After going many years without winning a single district game, South is excited for that to change this year.

Junior captain, Patrick Arce, has been on varsity since he was a freshman and explains why he thinks South has had such a good season.

“This season, we’ve played more as a team rather than being focused on solo players like other teams. Some of these other teams have a couple of good players and focus all of their attention on them rather than using the team as a whole,” Arce said. 

With districts just right around the corner, South will be playing teams who are almost all ranked in the top 25 in Missouri, so it won’t be a breeze, but the team shares their excitement, and they all agree on which team will be the hardest to beat, according to Arce.

“Ladue. They have really good solo players that can prove to be difficult,” said Arce.

Carroll also shares his opinions on Ladue

“I think Ladue will be the team to beat. They won state last year and also have proved they belong in Class 4,” he said. 

Having a 13-2 record so far this season, Ladue shows that they’re still just as strong as they were last year.

At press time, the 25 top teams in our district are SLUH at second in the state, Parkway West at 4th, Ladue at 7th, Kirkwood at 10th, and South at 23rd. With the rankings still changing, it’s hard to determine who’s the best in the district.

With the recent loss by Ladue to SLUH, South is almost guaranteed to play Parkway West or Kirkwood for its first round of districts

The players are very confident about their abilities to go far this season.

“South has always been the underdogs when it comes to things like big teams or districts because we haven’t shown that we’re good enough to compete against them until this year,” said  Carroll.

Senior captain Brendan Schmitt also shares his confidence in the team’s abilities this season

“The most important thing I want to do this season is to win. I think we’re good enough to go a long way this year. We have a lot of heart, and we want it more than the other teams do,” he said. 

 And shown by their record, they’ve done a lot of that this season. Having only lost 4 games in the first 15 games, they are a strong and connected team, according to Carroll.

“We have a great bond. This group of boys has been playing together for so many years, and we know each other so well that we play well together and know everyone else’s next move,”  Carroll said.