SALEM, Ore. – After a brief two-year hiatus moving to the NCAA DII soccer realm across the Willamette River, Warriors' head coach Tim Kagey has returned to the City on a Hill and brought a sense of urgency with him back to the Navy and Gold squad. Over the past decade, the Corban University Men's Soccer program has concluded seven seasons with at least ten victories clinched in the win column, with six of those seven reaching double-digit wins solely in Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) contests. Coach Kagey is responsible for nearly half of those double-digit win totals and either served on staff as an assistant or represented Corban on the field as a key defender for the remaining seasons that ended with multiple CCC regular season and tournament championships, along with deep NAIA National Tournament runs.
With their decade-long postseason streak coming to an end in the fall of 2024, Coach Kagey has a nearly 40-man squad realigned and focused on outperforming expectations detailed out in the 2025 CCC Men's Soccer Coaches' Preseason Poll with tenacity and grit despite representing one of the youngest rosters within the Pacific Northwest. With over half of the team entering their first school year as Warriors, Coach Kagey has a golden opportunity to reunite his returners and set the bar for incoming transfers/freshmen who are craving for a return to championship contention.
"I'm looking forward to seeing our group perform within a strong Cascade Conference," began Coach Kagey when asked to detail the upcoming year of potential within one of the most diverse conferences across the NAIA. "We understand what it takes to compete within the CCC and know our non-conference slate will prepare us for what will surely be a daily grind come conference play. We've got a young group of guys ready to exceed preseason expectations."
Season Schedule
The 2025 regular season slate officially opens this upcoming Thursday, August 21st for the Navy and Gold, as they'll open the year on the road against NCAA DIII Whitman College at James Hayner Field. The Blues will be utilizing the contest as a scrimmage and thus won't have a livestream or stats feed available for the general public, but results and a full game recap will be made available shortly after the contest wraps up.
Three days later, the Warriors will participate in the Battle of the Capital on Sparks Field in downtown Salem, as they'll meet NCAA DIII and crosstown rival Willamette University for a 6pm evening match on Sunday, August 24th. Despite a 4-1 loss to the Bearcats in 2024, Corban is 6-2-3 overall against Willamette since 2008 and hold a series best nine-game unbeaten streak that spanned for over a decade.
Their home opener is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, August 30th at the Outdoor Athletic Complex (OAC), as they'll host Simpson University for a 10am kickoff while the Warrior women's volleyball unit hosts day two of the Hampton Inn Classic atop Corban's campus in the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center. The upcoming non-conference bout with Simpson is their first meeting since 2015 (four-game winning streak intact) and will provide Warrior Nation with yet another athletics' outlet during the University's first weekend of fall term officially in session.
Following their non-conference schedule, the Navy and Gold will hit the road for three-straight CCC contests to end the month of September before their conference home opener on Friday, October 3rd against Warner Pacific University. The Knights have held the upper hand in three of their last four meetings and will serve as a difficult turning point of the season for the Warriors once again before they enjoy a Saturday day-off to prepare for a Sunday, October 5th contest against Walla Walla University.
In total, the Corban men's soccer squad is scheduled to host eight home matchups between the penultimate day of August and November 1st, with their final regular season contest represented by the Warriors' senior day festivities against Carroll College, the 2025 CCC preseason predicted champions and defending conference titleholders.
Should Coach Kagey and his crew find themselves in the top eight of the conference standings come season end, they'll begin preparing for the 2025 CCC Tournament, which will once again take place in Medford, Oregon at the Lithia & Driveway Fields. The tourney begins on Saturday, November 8th and concludes on the 12th with a new tournament champion crowned and a national tourney ticket punched.
Conference Outlook
The 2024 season was a year of firsts across the Pacific Northwest, with the most notable represented by the regular season championship and first of two automatic national tournament bids clinched by the Saints of Carroll College in their tenth season competing within the CCC. While taking the prominent postseason omission for the Warriors, a playoff berth for the Lions of former Multnomah University, and the No. 4-seeded Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers taking home the CCC Tournament title into account in the many conference firsts, the 2025 season has nothing but undeveloped potential ready to take shape.
Corban holds the most regular season championships of any current CCC member across the 13-member men's soccer league, as they've secured eight all-time and will look to procure a ninth in Coach Kagey's first season back at the helm and fifth overall as the program's head coach. Despite their eighth-place preseason poll prediction and recent struggles against specific CCC foes, the Warriors have never finished worse than fourth-overall within the conference standings in the Kagey era.
The 2024 top five via the final CCC standings are a near identical match with this year's preseason poll results, as the Saints and Raiders of Southern Oregon University were separated by just ten voter points while the aforementioned Knights slipped to fourth behind the reigning tournament champion Mountaineers. Including the 2023 CCC tourney champ Yotes of The College of Idaho, all five programs received at least one first-place vote and return a decent chunk of their championship caliber rosters despite losing numerous All-Conference student-athletes. The redistribution of Multnomah's top footballers across the CCC will surely prove to be impactful within the conference standings, yet the non-conference slates for each of the top programs will prove vital as the fall term progresses.
Key Returners/Newcomers
The departure of not one, but two member of the 2024 Corban men's soccer All-Conference team will leave a pair of holes within the Warriors' attacking/midfielding units that Coach Kagey must find immediate replacements form, yet benefits from the return of one key loss in the form of Grady Thurman joining his coaching staff during the first year of his return to the City on a Hill. The lone All-Conference returner is represented by redshirt senior goalkeeper Isaac Pureco, who earned Second Team accolades last year after securing a 2.00 goals-against-average, 88 saves to lead the CCC, and a .727 save percentage.
Joining Pureco as key returners for the Warriors is a pair of senior leaders and sophomore team captain, as redshirt senior midfielder Bryan Lopez and senior midfielder Santiago Castano settle back into the central third of the field with sophomore defender Alexander Guindy threatening opposing squads in both his defensive containment and unique offensive threat from the outside back position.
Both Castano and Lopez will suit up for their final seasons of collegiate soccer competition while Guindy has only just started his NAIA supremacy as a vital member of the Corban men's soccer program. The Warriors nearly half of their starting lineup from 2024 to the spring commencement ceremony where 13 seniors crossed the stage with their diplomas yet are prepared to reload with the presence of veteran transfers such as senior forward Nathan Martinez who traded his NCAA DII status to follow Coach Kagey to into the navy and gold kits.
While half of the program consists of fifth year and true seniors providing years of experience and wisdom, the remaining half is represented by true freshmen who have yet to completely unearth their true athletic potential. With the most glaring hole represented within their defensive line that lost three of four starters from the 2024 season, transfer sophomore defender Aaron James and freshman defender Jude Barzousky provide immediate relief for an otherwise uncertain defensive presence.
On the offensive front, the loss of both starting wingers will provide transfers and true freshmen an opportunity to display their scoring skillsets, as freshman forward Jaycob Miller and freshman midfielder Josue Lomeli have already displayed playmaking capabilities in their two scrimmage dates played out against Trinity Western University and Chemeketa Community College to start the preseason schedule. Sophomore forward Zachary Milczarek is the leading goal scorer returning from the 2024 roster, as he scored on four occasions and assisted on another during his true freshman campaign, including the game-winner against I-5 rival Bushnell University.
Warrior Whims (Final Thoughts)
The ceiling for the 2025 Corban men's soccer team perfectly coincides with the cohesion of Coach Kagey's returning student-athletes and their ability to integrate the skilled recruiting class into the upbeat, possession-focused mindset of old that cemented the Warriors as one of the most formidable conference opponents within the CCC. However, lack of depth between the first team/key reserves and collegiate playing experience for the young lineup will prove influential in determining whether this upcoming fall season will be Coach Kagey's fifth-straight postseason worthy effort, or if the Navy and Gold will watch from the sidelines for a second-consecutive playoff cycle.
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