RETURNING LETTERWINNERS FOR THE WEBSTER CITY boys soccer team are, left to right, David Villelas, Abisa Ramirez-Carmona, Dany Morales, Edwin Ramos Nolasco, Aaron Mendoza. (Submitted Photo)

The Webster City boys soccer team had a season to remember in 2025.

With a new team on the pitch, the goals are still the same for the Lynx and head coach Craig Signorin.

“This is a brand-new team,” Signorin said. “We’re coming off a historic year. The expectations are still high — it’s just going to be a tougher road to get there.”

The Lynx reached the Class 2A state semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Gilbert. Webster City put together a 17-1 record and scored 91 goals.

The first order of business will be to fill the shoes of career scoring leader Eddy Fuentes-Cruz, who had 44 goals last season.

Signorin knows that there is a lot of work to do, but in the early stages of the season, he’s seen signs of the team making legitimate progress.

“The guys have been working exceptionally hard,” Signorin said. “I’m proud of the young men who are excited to step into new roles and become starters and future leaders for our team.

“They’re not running away scared or standing in the shadows — they’re accepting the challenge and taking it head on. You have to love that fearlessness and competitiveness inside them.”

Webster City will have to replace the majority of its scoring, but Signorin has some definite candidates.

The Lynx have sophomore goalkeeper Edwin Ramos Nolasco back in the box. Ramos Nolasco had a banner sophomore season, only allowing eight goals with an 88-percent save rate. He had 61 saves in all.

“Within the first week, Edwin has already matured greatly from recent years. I’m super proud of him and enjoy the relationship we have,” Signorin said. “Abisai Ramirez-Carmona (a junior) will fill in as our leader of our back line following in his brother’s footsteps. Dany Morales (a junior) is a defensive midfielder. I’m looking for Dany to step up into a bigger role for us and help slow down opponents, attacking mids and orchestrate our build-up.

“Aaron Mendoza (junior) will move into the midfield for us and take on a more aggressive role as well.”

Signorin is looking at a couple of ninth-graders that could fill in some key spots as well.

“We have a couple freshmen that we will have to bring up to fill our roster,” Signorin said. “We are doing as much as we can to prepare them to play at a high level, but it’s more of a ready-or-not mentality.”

With only two seniors on the roster, Signorin is leaning on a strong junior class to make the push.

“We have a strong junior class in Edwin, David, Dany, Abisai, and Aaron,” Signorin said. “We are going to look to them to lead this team through the highs and lows of the season.”

With those returning players bringing their experience back after a strong run, Signorin is hoping that the Lynx can continue to prosper.

“It’s more of an experience thing than anything,” Signorin said. “We graduated a lot of seniors…the majority of our roster is (filled with) freshmen and sophomores.

“We need to get these young guys that have the potential to play some varsity minutes ready to go.”