Highland soccer looking to build upon productive 2021 season

Coming off their first regional championship game appearance in five seasons last fall, the Highland soccer Bulldogs are looking to have even better results in 2022.

Overall, Highland returns 15 players from last year’s club that finished 10-15-1 while reaching the IHSA Class 2A regional championship game.

Key returners back for HHS are senior defender/midfielder Gunnar Mackey, senior middie Drew Schonhardt, senior defenders Nick Schoeck and Gabe Schwarz, and senior Reece Korte. They will form the core of the Bulldogs’ lineup.

“All of our seniors have seen significant (playing) time, and have all played varsity and significant minutes,” Highland coach Jay Robertson said.

Robertson also expects significant contributions from a talented junior class. Jacob Oliver and Luke Morris will lead that group.

“Jacob Oliver and Luke Morris started since day one last year as sophomores, so they will be significant members this year,” Robertson said.

Fellow juniors Zane Korte and Jacob Lewis — who started in the playoffs last season — will also see plenty of field time when needed.

In goal, junior Cole Ellis — Luke Stieb’s understudy last season — will move into the lead role between the pipes for the Bulldogs.

“He played goalie (last year) and was behind Luke Stieb. He’ll be our main goalie,” Robertson said of Ellis.

Thus far, Robertson has been pleased with the quality of the team’s work in practice.

“I feel like they’ve put in a good amount of work this (past) week,” Robertson said. They were active all summer and hopefully we’ll hit the ground running. I would say they’re a hungry group from the way last year ended with the (Alton) Marquette regional and the double overtime (regional final) loss to Triad ... they got a feel for that experience, so I think they worked hard all summer and they’re ready to get back to it.”

Highland finished fifth in the Mississippi Valley Conference standings last season and Robertson believes they need a top four finish in order to make a deep postseason run.

“As I’ve told these guys, if your in the upper part of this conference but don’t win it, you’re in a good spot to do some damage in the playoffs, so conference first and then hopefully we’re playing our best soccer in the postseason,” Robertson said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2022 at 9:13 AM.