No one in the OAA Red Division is off to a hotter start this season than the Troy Colts.
They’re the only team left out of eight in what’s perennially one of the state’s toughest divisions to still be unbeaten on the year overall, and the Colts only appear to be getting better.
After beginning the fall by beating Sterling Heights Stevenson 3-1, Troy High blanked Rochester Adams, typically a Red Division side, 2-0.
Then they began divisional play, and that’s when the Colts seemed to find another gear. They put everyone on alert when they beat ninth-ranked Clarkston, who won the Red and went to the D1 state semifinals last season, 5-1 on Aug. 25.
“It wasn’t one of those games where we scored loads of goals at the end,” Colts head coach Adam Spinks said. “We scored three in the first and jumped on them again and scored two early goals. Yeah, I think we’re in a good spot.”
Spinks said that following Troy’s 6-0 domination of Oxford at home on Sept. 1, another where his team wasted no time in flaunting its quality.
The variety in which the scoring is being done is part of what makes the display impressive. Already leading less than nine minutes into that game against the Wildcats on goals by Kevin Garay and Abdul Rehman, Connor Hotts curled a ball off the far post to make it 3-0 inside under 15 minutes. One of Troy’s deeper players caught Oxford’s left back a little too high up and played a cross to the right wing for Nic Thomas, who played a cross to Mateo Coronado that made it 4-0, still in the opening 40 minutes.
Oxford’s Noah Ritter, right, tries to keep up with Troy’s Mateo Coronado in a 6-0 Colts’ victory on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (BRYAN EVERSON – MediaNews Group)
For good measure, Nick Van Raemdonck arrived from the back and connected with a header to complete the scoring in the final eight minutes. If it wasn’t him, it could have been 6-foot-5 center back Blake Kuiper, another unmissable target when he arrives in the box.
“Our team can score from anywhere,” said Kuiper, the lone returning starter along that back line with Van Raemdonck. “We can score from up top, as you can see. We can score from the midfield, and also dangerous from set pieces, too, so we can score from anywhere, really.”
Though it looks it now, it wasn’t necessarily a sure thing that the Colts (5-0-0, 3-0-0), ranked second in the latest D1 poll, would be the division frontrunner. But like the Wolves with Cole Cooper and Micah Amega, they graduated a pair of first-team all-state midfielders in Nick Kamugunga, who scored for Detroit Mercy in its Horizon League opener on Wednesday, and Austin Su, who logged his first assist at Michigan when the Wolverines played Notre Dame last Sunday.
There was a massive amount of production to replace in those two. Off the top of his head, Spinks estimated Su’s goal contributions were close to 40 and Kamugunga wasn’t far behind at around 30. Said Spinks, “We knew at the beginning of the year, no one is going to be Austin Su, right? We knew that, but (we told them) be yourself and be the best possible version of yourself. We knew we had talent in the front line.”
Hotts is already looking like one of the best forwards to come out of the program in recent memory. He registered double-digit goals as a freshman (at least half of them in the playoffs), then added a brace against Oxford and was one of the talismen when the Colts beat Bloomfield Hills 5-0 on Tuesday.
“Playing with Austin and Nick, they were kind of role models for me, but I knew I could do it after watching them play,” Hotts said. “I learned a lot from them and I’ve enjoyed almost taking the mantle so far and learning from them and performing like they used to do. It boosted my confidence (playing like I did as a freshman), for sure. It was hard, especially last year, coming in and playing against bigger guys. But great team, fans, great bench and coaches, they all give me motivation, make me believe I can do it and push me to be better.”
The high-flying offense has bred a friendly competition for who can wear Troy’s “Golden Boot,” the phrase coined for a team’s leading scorer in the sport. Hotts has six goals after Tuesday’s shutout, while Coronado and Ryan Wind aren’t far behind. And as proven by the fact that four other players not named Coronado or Wind joined Hotts in finding the back of the net against Bloomfield Hills, the scoring prowess goes beyond the starting XI.
“Mateo’s scoring goals, Kevin as well picking up goals in the midfield, and even off our bench when we bring guys on, there’s not a big drop in level, which we’ve not had in many years,” Spinks said. “The group this year is actually really good.”
Maybe that’s what’s allowed the Colts to almost look better coming off a year where they might have just missed on the division but still went 13-4-1 and nearly captured a regional title.
“I think every year you have a different group of guys, and we’d describe this group as super high energy,” Spinks said. “When you compare this group to last year’s, ability-wise we’re not as good, but we’ve got better work ethic and I think that shows how fast we start in games.
“I mean, we’re a powerhouse school, right? I don’t think we’ve ever massively overlooked. But people can be like, ‘They’re not going to be as good as what they were.’ But I think we’ve proven with (the games against Clarkston and Oxford) we are the real deal.”
Still, Spinks and his staff know that it’s still all to play for, particularly next Tuesday when Troy travels to take on city rival and 12th-ranked Athens. The Red Hawks were responsible for half of the Colts’ losses in 2025, including the 3-1 defeat in the regional final.
“We’ve spoke about not getting carried away with beating Clarkston and being ranked No. 2,” Spinks said. “All these rankings don’t give you a 1-nil start when you step on the field … We’ve just got to stay on the right track and keep that momentum flying.”