Arcadia soccer starts strong in MVC debut

Local games will mean more to the Arcadia High School boys soccer team this fall.

The Raiders have joined the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) for soccer this fall after spending the last few seasons as an independent team, and they kicked off the 2023 season with confidence last week.

Arcadia returned to the MVC and opened its season with a 3-1 win over conference opponent Sparta last Tuesday at home, and they followed the effort by edging defending conference champion La Crosse Central two days later.

Arcadia was handed its first nonconference loss of the season on Friday, a 6-1 falter at Somerset High School. No further information from that game was reported to the Times. 

The Raiders were set to host Menomonie on Tuesday as well as Onalaska on Thursday before they travel to Pacelli this Saturday for a tournament.

Coach Luis Cruz and Arcadia are hoping to continue their recent success, as the team reached the WIAA Division Four state tournament in 2021. They lost to Aquinas in the sectional final a year ago to end a 16-6-2 season.

Arcadia 3 Sparta 1

Arcadia got goals from three different players in its conference debut last Tuesday and utilized strong team defense to limit the Spartans.

Ony Zarazoga opened the scoring for Arcadia in the 27th minute after taking a pass from teammate Walker Slaby, and the Raiders didn’t wait long to double their lead.

Irvin Augustin scored just two minutes later to make it 2-0 for the hosts, whom also got a second-half goal from Christopher Urbina in the 50th minute of the game.

Sparta got its lone score from Trey Manske.

Arcadia 4 Central 3

After the Riverhawks didn’t lose a single game in MVC play a year ago, it was the conference’s newest member that handed Central its first loss of the year last Thursday.

Central (1-2, 0-1 MVC) and the Raiders combined to score seven goals in the contest, which was played at Field for Kids in La Crosse.

Individual statistics were not reported to the Times.