PORTLAND, Ore. – The 2024 season was a bit different for Portland Pilots Men's Soccer from the norm. They went 7-4-7 to break a program record for ties in a year and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2020/21 COVID Season. They battled injuries and dropped early matches that weren't expected.
Despite that, there was plenty to be excited about. They ended the season on a 10-game unbeaten streak that was the longest of any team on the West Coast, going undefeated in WCC play for the first time since 1989. They went unbeaten against four teams who finished the season in the top 35 in RPI last year. Despite injuries to key players and a tough schedule, the Pilots persevered to put together a solid resume, even if it wasn't quite enough to make the tournament.
"If you had told me before last season that we would have wins against San Diego, LMU and Washington, a tie against Denver and a home win against Oregon State, I would tell you we'd be in the Top 10 in RPI in the country," Portland head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt said. It's easy to understand why – four of those five teams went on to make the NCAA Tournament last season.
But 2025 is a new year, and Carlin-Voigt is ecstatic about the team he and the staff have put together, as well as the schedule. With a squad that's loaded with fresh talent and high-level returners, the Pilots are ready to tackle a new season and build on that strong finish.
"We're very excited," Carlin-Voigt said. "We've been working really hard since this spring to build a cohesive, fit attacking side that is committed to the values of our program, which are one team, one goal, one family… we're excited coming off the heels of the way we finished last fall."
Carlin-Voigt notes that this year's squad is young. Only six of Portland's 32 players enter the season as athletic seniors. 18 of them are underclassmen by eligibility.
"We don't have too many seniors in the group," Carlin-Voigt said. "The core of our team is younger guys, and while we still have some seniors in Micaah (Garnette) and Sebastian (Hernandez) and Oliver (Jeppe) we have a lot of guys that have three years left."
Not only is the 2025 squad a young team – they're a team filled with fresh faces new to wearing black and purple. Of the 32 players rostered for the 2025 season, 16 are newcomers, with seven transfers and nine freshmen. Several of those newcomers figure to make an impact this season, with TopDrawerSoccer having the recruiting class ranked fifth among all men's programs.
David Ajagbe comes to Portland after playing like one of the best freshmen in the country last year for Ohio State, who earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Ajagbe scored seven goals and added two assists to make the All-Big Ten Freshman team and TopDrawerSoccer's Freshman Best XI Second Team. He just made the cut in TopDrawerSoccer's Top 100 College Players list, sliding in at 99
th.
Ajagbe isn't the only high-level transfer, with several impact Division II transfers. Anton Hjalmarsson and Andrew Portis both are transferring up to Division I after dominating at their respective schools.
Hjalmarsson scored 20 goals and added 13 assists over two seasons at Fort Lewis, earning All-American honors in 2023, while Portis was an All-American in 2023 and 2024 while playing with Cal State Los Angeles, earning CCAA Defensive Player of the Year honors last year as well. Both will be hugely important, adding depth to the squad.
"We've got a deep team. I think that's one of the strengths of the team this year," Carlin-Voigt said. "I believe I have a bunch of guys that could start, definitely more than 11, if not double that. There's a group that's got some depth."
The freshmen will factor in as well. Of the nine freshmen joining Portland, five of them were in the Top 200 for TopDrawerSoccer: Julian Bretous (94
th), Ayo Akintobi (105
th), Christian Mendoza (144
th) and Maddox Findlay (176
th). Four of Portland's freshmen – Mendoza, Andrew Bromert, Mason Bradley and Keenan VanPelt – are local products as well, hailing from the Pacific Northwest.
And don't forget the returners. Three players return who earned All-WCC honors last season in Joe Highfield, Miguel-Angel Hernandez and Diego Rosas. Highfield and Rosas highlight a crew of six returners who played over 800 minutes last year (Hernandez played just over 600 minutes in seven matches).
Highfield shocked the WCC with a stellar season last year. He became the first Pilot to earn All-WCC First Team and Freshman Team honors in the same year since Benji Michel in 2016 after scoring seven goals with three assists in his first year of action. Highfield scored four of those goals and added all three assists against just conference opponents, ranking second among WCC players.
Rosas and Hernandez were crucial as well. Rosas, who earned All-WCC honorable mention, led the Pilots with eight assists last year, including a three-assist game against LMU that made him the third Pilot since 2017 to have three assists in a game. Hernandez posted shutouts in three of his seven games, with two of those shutouts coming against teams who were ranked at the time in the top three in San Diego and Denver. The 2-0 win over the Toreros was the Pilots' first since 2000 over a Top 3 team.
Sebastian Hernandez, Oliver Jeppe and Micaah Garnette are the other three players to clock at least 800 minutes. Hernandez was the leader for Portland last season in that category, anchoring the back line. Now in the captain's role, he'll be looked to again to provide leadership and guidance for a club planning to bounce back.
"He's 5-foot-10 but plays like he's 6-foot-2," Carlin-Voigt said about his captain. "He's great in the air, he's quick, he's a leader. He's got steel in his spine and he's been a winner for us."
Even with the struggles of last season, the Pilots managed to put together a solid offensive season. They were second in the conference in goals per game (1.78), total assists (44), total points (108), points per game (6.00) and assists per game (2.44). They were in the top 30 nationally in total assists, assists per game, points and points per game, and over the last three years have been one of the best teams in the country at scoring goals with unselfish play.
Defensively, the Pilots hope that both Hernandez's as well as players like Angel Martinez – who played just six games last season but has impressed since this spring – and Nikos Clarke-Tosczak – who played and started 30 games over two seasons at Rhode Island – will help keep the Pilots in games. Carlin-Voigt says to expect the Pilots to continue building on the success they've had in years past.
"We're going to be an exciting team," Carlin-Voigt said. "We're going to play an exciting, attractive brand of winning soccer, and I think you'll leave the game feeling entertained, but also connected to our team."
The schedule doesn't soften in 2025. Those who have watched the Pilots in recent years will recognize many of the opponents the Pilots play this season. The season starts tonight, Aug. 22, against the Central Arkansas Bears, who tied Portland 2-2 in the home opener three years ago and will contend most likely for an ASUN title this fall.
On the schedule are four opponents who are either ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, including the Denver Pioneers (No. 4), the San Diego Toreros (No. 10), the Kansas City Roos (No. 18) and the Seattle U Redhawks (RV). The Pilots played the Pioneers and Toreros last season, tying the Pioneers on the road while beating the Toreros 2-0 down in San Diego. They'll play the Saint Louis Billikens and the Oregon State Beavers on the road as well, making it five opponents who all played in the NCAA Tournament last year.
"The parity has never been greater," Carlin-Voigt said about the quality of men's soccer across the country. "We always design the schedule as hard as we can. We want to give ourselves the best chance for high RPI games like I think we have on the schedule this year and the chance to host first-round tournament games, if you can earn a berth and a bid… you want to give yourself two chance to get into the dance, as we say."
The conference gets no easier as well. San Diego and Oregon State both qualified for the NCAA Tournament, and with the addition of Seattle U, the West Coast Conference once again looks poised to be one of the tougher conferences in men's soccer. It's a challenge the Pilots are ready to take head on, according to Carlin-Voigt.
"The WCC is by far the best conference on the West Coast by the amount of selections that we've had in the tournament," Carlin-Voigt said. "Our teams go on deep tournament runs, just the depth of the league, anyone can beat anyone on any given day, and there are some really tough places to play away from home."
Last year felt like an aberration for Portland Men's Soccer. After three years of a consistent tournament presence, injuries and poor finishing early in the season caught up to the Pilots, even as they put together a stellar final stretch. Despite that, Carlin-Voigt feels confident they can build on how they finished 2024.
The Pilots are on the attack; and there are few teams more dangerous on the attack than Portland.
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