two 6A titles in the past 10 years<\/a>, and among Oregon\u2019s 47 big schools, only Jesuit has more (three).<\/p>\nBut can the Pacers win again?<\/p>\n
What the players say<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course our main goal is winning state, but we are focused on each game ahead of us,\u201d said Lakeridge senior defender and team captain Pablo Spilk. \u201cWe are looking to keep stacking solid performances, continue playing each game like it\u2019s the state championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to \u2026 bring the state championship back to Lakeridge, and that will be done with the level of togetherness that we show,\u201d said Pacer senior goalkeeper and team captain Collin Cernitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur biggest goals are to win the Three Rivers League and make a deep playoff run,\u201d added senior midfielder and forward Liam Kutella, another team captain. \u201cWe want to keep improving and maintain our standard of being the hardest-working team on the field every game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole team has the same goal \u2014 we all want to hold that trophy at the end of the year,\u201d added senior forward and team captain Callum Morrison.<\/p>\n
What they\u2019ve accomplished<\/p>\n
The 2026 version of the Pacers hasn\u2019t been perfect this fall, but they\u2019ve come pretty darn close.<\/p>\n
During their non-league schedule, they went 7-1-1 and beat the three top-10 teams they played, including No. 1 Metro League champion Jesuit (2-1 on Sept. 1), No. 6 Grant (1-0 on Sept. 10) and No. 5 Beaverton (3-1 on Sept. 16).<\/p>\n
In Three Rivers League play, Lakeridge went unbeaten for the fifth straight year, extended their TRL winning streak to 25 games (their last loss came to Tualatin on Oct. 20, 2021), and rose to third in the 6A statewide coaches poll and fourth in the Oregon School Activities Association power rankings.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/p>\n
Thanks to their top-four finish in the OSAA power rankings, the Pacers will get a bye in the first round of the 6A state playoffs, then will host either No. 13 McKay or the No. 20 team in the state in second-round action at Lakeridge High School on Tuesday, Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
From there, the Pacers would need to win four games to claim the state championship, including a potential rematch against No. 1 Jesuit in the state semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 10.<\/p>\n
The stats<\/p>\n
Through Lakeridge\u2019s first 22 games, here\u2019s a look at the Pacers\u2019 statistical leaders.<\/p>\n
Junior forward Jackson Romero and senior forward Zavier Lara led the Pacers in scoring with 12 goals each, while both Kutella and junior Nate Pasek have five goals apiece.
\nMorrison leads Lakeridge with five assists, while both Lara and junior Leo Van Driesche have added four apiece.
\nCernitz and the Pacers\u2019 defense have notched five shutouts in 2026 \u2014 including four in the past month \u2014 and allowed just over one goal per game.<\/p>\n
The last word<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to do to achieve [our biggest goals] is to make sure through difficult times, we stay connected as a team and are bringing each other up, no matter what gets thrown our way,\u201d Lara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can consistently meet our standards and play for each other, I think we\u2019ll put ourselves in a great position to achieve [our] goals,\u201d Kutella said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe keys are going to be togetherness and relentlessness,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cThere are a lot of good teams in the state, so we are going to need to show that we want it the most every time we step on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we have the talent,\u201d Cernitz added. \u201cWe just have to play together and be the hardest-working team on the field and we know we can reach these goals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakeridge boys soccer wants to win it all Published 11:06 pm Sunday, October 25, 2026 The Lakeridge boys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-946596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}