Humbled and highly motivated: The Dimond boys soccer team isn’t looking past anyone in 2022

The Dimond Lynx were riding high heading into the 2021 Alaska boys soccer state championship game. They came in with an unblemished record of 17-0 before having their perfect season spoiled in a 1-0 upset loss to the Service Cougars, who Dimond beat twice in a regular season sweep.

Even though Service was ranked No. 2 in the state, Dimond was heavily favored and expected to be crowned state champions. Longtime Cougars head coach Dan Rufner even conceded that the Lynx were the better team last season but said his team played the better game that day.

“I wouldn’t say that they played better than us, they just got one goal, that’s it,” Dimond coach Will Lucero said.

He believes that the demise of the 2021 Lynx at the hands of the Cougars in the championship was a combination of a smart strategy and good fortune by Service coupled with fatigue on the part of his team.

“I think that tactically, they had a game plan to defend us in which we refer to as a low-block defense, and we just got tired,” Lucero said.

Dimond was coming off a hard-fought game against West in the semifinals that went into double overtime and ended in a 1-0 win for the Lynx.

“For any team, it is hard to play against a low block because it is tiring because they collect the ball, kick it forward, we gather it, we go forward,” Lucero said. “It’s a back-and-forth, and they came out in the second half and got lucky.”

The image of that goal and the devastation of his players when the game was over is one that Lucero said he will never forget. It was at the forefront of his players’ minds and motivated the entire team all offseason.

“We all couldn’t wait to get back at it,” Lucero said. “Just standing there and watching them celebrate after we went undefeated the whole season just putting in the work, playing games and for us to get beat like that was tough.”

[Reigning boys soccer state champion Service High acknowledges the target on its back as it embarks on title defense]

He claims the team’s approach in heading onto the 2022 season is vastly different, focusing on humility and respect for other teams.

“We can’t look past anyone,” Lucero said. “It’s anybody’s game. Whoever wants it. We just got to make sure that we keep focus on who we want to be and that’s a team that wants to represent the district and that wants to represent the game in a well played way.”

In order to finish what they started last year and claim the program’s first state title since 2019, he knows his team not only can’t look past any opponent but they also can’t let up on any team they face.

“Coming into the season, we got to play for 80 minutes no matter what,” Lucero said. “We just can’t sit on any kind of lead, we can’t sit on anything, we just got to keep playing because anything can happen.”

The Lynx graduated seven players from last year’s state runner-up team but are still off to a strong start to the season with a 4-0-2 record.

“It’s kind of a rebuilding stage for us but at the same time, we have good leaders on the team that is making this team work the way it is so I’m very proud of them,” Lucero said.

They get tremendous leadership on and off the pitch from senior captains Jin Mateaki, Dakota Mateaki, Joe Butzke and Tayson Mckenzie.

“Those four have been anchoring the team,” Lucero said. “They’re controlling it out there for me. Having good leaders keep the game in check and where we want to be.”

The fourth-year head coach has had to rely heavily on his experienced upperclassmen at the onset of the season as the team has been battling the injury bug.

“We’ve been dealing with a lot of injuries, so we haven’t had a full roster or our full starting 11,” Lucero said. “I’ve had to play JV players, a lot of freshmen, and it’s been a season where we’re just hanging in there.”

The Lynx have been looking forward to their looming rematch with the Cougars, scheduled for Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at Service High.

“We’ve been counting the days for that one,” Lucero said. “Hopefully it is going to be a good day.”