Mike Kraft/MDN Minot High junior midfielder Dylan Oswalt led the Magicians in scoring with eight goals and eight assists this season. Oswalt was one of four Magi named to the All-WDA team.

At the beginning of the season, the Minot High boys soccer team found itself in an unfamiliar situation, having to find a way to replace 13 seniors from a year ago with an incoming roster filled with inexperience at the varsity level.

As the season enters its final week, the Magicians are once again back in familiar territory at the state tournament as the No. 2 seed out of the West Region. They will play Fargo Shanley – the East Region’s No. 3 seed – in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 6:45 p.m. at Starion Sports Complex in Mandan

Any worry that the Magi’s lack of experience entering the season would lead to them missing out on the state tournament for the first time since 2009 and just the fifth time in program history was quickly squashed when they got off to a 5-1-1 start. Minot would spend the majority of the season occupying the second spot in the WDA standings behind regular season champion and defending state champion Bismarck Legacy.

“Overall, we have high expectations going into every year, but obviously losing the majority of our starting lineup last year, it was hard to know exactly what we would get out,” Minot High coach Jordan Foley said. “From an insider’s perspective, I knew we had really strong kids. I was pleasantly surprised. They were about where I thought they would be, but once you get into the season and get a couple games under your belt, you realize you can conquer a lot more. I think we’re coming to that point here hopefully.”

The Magicians (9-3-4 overall, 9-3-4 WDA) defeated every team in the region at least once except for Legacy, which ran through the conference undefeated. Minot swept series against Dickinson and Minot North.

The Magi relied heavily on its most experienced trio of players in the first half of the season, with juniors Dylan Oswalt, Nolan Schmidt and Tayson Solper providing the bulk of the goals before the rest of the team began adding to the stat sheet down the stretch. They accounted for 14 goals the first time around the WDA schedule, including the first six goals of the season and nine of the first 10 and 14 overall. The rest of the lineup scored eight goals. The second time through the schedule, the trio put up nine goals, while the rest of the lineup added 10. The Magicians received goal contributions from 10 different players and points contributions from 11.

Oswalt led the team in scoring with 16 points on eight goals and eight assists. Nolan Schmidt also contributed eight goals and finished the regular season with double-digit points with 11. Grayson Steele also contributed 11 points with six goals and five assists. Solper was second on the team in goals with seven.

Minot High’s defense allowed just 16 goals in 16 matches, second fewest behind only Legacy (six). Senior goaltender Ian Stewart made the most of his one year as starter, making 62 saves on 78 shots faced, while registering seven shutouts.

“That’s a pretty tight group there,” Foley said. “Drew Bohlender returning as a center-back also added a lot. Ian Stewart did a heck of a job as goalkeeper during the regular season. Grayson Steele on the offensive side, he’s a huge competitor and brings consistency and that fire every game.”

Bohlender, Stewart, Oswalt and Schmidt were named to the all-WDA team.

Shanley will serve as the first non-conference opponent the Magi will see this season, as they did not play a single team from the East Region. Likewise, the Deacons didn’t play a team from the WDA. Their only non-conference match came against Hillcrest Academy (Minn.).

Shanley didn’t qualify for the state tournament in 2024, but did capture its second state title in program history the year prior. Its other title came in 2008. The Deacons have appeared in five other championship matches.

The Deacons don’t score at the same clip as the Magi, netting just 20 goals in 15 overall matches, but are sound defensively, allowing just 17 goals all season.

“It’s a really quick team,” Foley said. “They’ve had a pretty good record against top teams in the East. Defensively, they seem very sound, so we’re going to have to do a lot to make sure we’re getting through the back line. They’re able to counter with pace anytime you leave them open, so we have to make sure we’re fortified through all three phases of our formation and not falling asleep on anything.”

Shanley (7-4-4, 7-4-3) brings a bit more experience to the state tournament than the Magi in terms of upperclassmen. The Deacons roster sports five seniors and four juniors, most of whom were there when they won the title two years ago. But experience isn’t everything, Foley believes.

“I don’t think it’s always necessarily make-or-break,” Foley said. “It comes down to what type of kids you have on that roster and what kind of kids can jump in during that moment and accept that challenge and be able to go out and compete and which ones aren’t ready for it. It just really depends on the type of kids you have. This year we may not have a bunch of upperclassmen, but we have a lot of boys who have been on a state roster and have state minutes, they just might not have had as prevalent of a role as they’ll have in this one.”

Legacy enters the state tournament as the top seed in the West and the favorites to repeat as state champions after a dominating regular season in which the Sabers went undefeated in WDA play. Their lone loss came to West Fargo Sheyenne back in August. The Mustangs are in the tournament field as the East’s No. 2 seed. The Magicians played Legacy tough, dropping 2-0 and 2-1 contests. The Magi’s minus-3 point differential against the Sabers was second-best in the WDA behind Williston (minus-2).

Those contests served as a litmus test as the level of competition the Magicians expect to see this weekend in Mandan.

“Legacy is the reigning champions and they’ve had a heck of a season,” Foley said. “Anytime we knew we were going into those matches it was important that we treat those as a state game because that’s the level of competition we need to make sure we’re consistently getting to.”

The Magicians have advanced to the semifinal round each of the last three years. Last year they defeated Grand Forks Red River in the quarterfinals before falling to West Fargo. In 2023, they knocked off Fargo Davies in the quarterfinals only to be stopped by Legacy in the ensuing round. In 2022, it was West Fargo again halting their title dreams in the semifinals after getting by Red River on penalty kicks in the opener.

The Magicians may bring a new-look roster to the state tournament this season compared to year’s past, but that doesn’t mean the expectations are any different. They are there to win more than just a quarterfinal match.

“The expectation is you want to win the whole thing every time,” Foley said. “Winning the third-place match is great and everything, but at the end of the day it’s not a state title and that’s where we’re going there for. Anything short of that kind of hurts at the end of the day. We’ve been lucky enough to get to the semifinals the last three years. One goal has gotten us in each of those, so we have to make sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to take this thing to the next step.”