The Marblehead High boys soccer team ended up with an 11-6-2 regular season record last year, and was the 24th seed going into the Division 2 state tournament. As a reward for another winning campaign, they had the dubious honor of going up against host Hingham, the ninth seed, in the Round of 32. But despite traveling through rush hour traffic, they gave the Hillies all they could handle, before coming up short by the narrowest of margins, 2-1.
But that was then and this is now, and all signs point to a program with plenty of depth after Coach Elmer Magana welcomed a record number of players to the first day of tryouts on Aug. 24. Magana had 79 on the pitch, which gives him plenty of options to field three teams, once again.
“For the first time (since I’ve been here), we had to make cuts, because we couldn’t carry all 79 players in the entire program,” said Magana. “About 17 players didn’t make the final cut, and it was an extremely hard thing to do as a coach, as a teacher and as a father myself (to give them the news).”
With a winning history of success and many players in the program this year, the expectations are naturally higher than a typical year.
“Our No. 1 goal is always to make the playoffs,” Magana said. “We have 20 players on our 2026 varsity roster, which consists of six returning seniors. They will all provide leadership for their junior, sophomore and freshman teammates. We certainly have the pieces to compete with the best this fall.”
Erik Badzak, Mark Vinokur and Mitchell Goldwater are this year’s captains. Badzak and Vinokur are center midfielders.
“They will be our playmakers, while (Goldwater) is a skillful and tough player on defense. He’ll start at center back,” Magana said.
Besides his talented captains, Magana has really been impressed with goalie Andrew Halverson so far in the early going.
“He has had great performances in our scrimmages, and will definitely keep us in all of our games,” said the veteran Marblehead coach.
Magana also likes his striker David Magen, and he said of his forward, “He’s eager to set a new scoring record. He already had a hat trick against Bishop Fenwick (Aug. 28) and scored another goal against St. John’s Prep (Aug. 31) in our first two scrimmages.”
Mitchell Leighton and Noah Smerka are expected to frustrate opposing offenses quite often this year, according to Magana. Julien Poitevin and Quinn Cohane will be the team’s wingers, “and they should be deadly offensive threats this year,” said the coach.
Magana has also been impressed by his corners Jackson Nutt, Nathaniel Bentley and Philip Druker so far.
This year’s edition of the Magicians understands that the Beverly Panthers, last year’s Northeastern Conference champs, will once again be the team to beat.
“They are a physical and technical team,” Magana said of Beverly.
Masconomet is another NEC club that won’t be easy to bring down. “The Chieftains graduated great players last year, but have since reloaded with new skillful players,” said Magana. “We will also have the rare opportunity to play the defending state champs — West Springfield — at its place on Oct. 17.”
The Magicians defeated aforementioned Bishop Fenwick, with 29 players suiting up, before Magana trimmed the roster back to 21. In their second scrimmage, the Marblehead boys shut down the Prep, 2-0.
“This scrimmage showed us that when the game gets physical, we don’t back down. We are not going to be a piñata or punching bag this year,” said the coach.
Marblehead then came out flat in the scrimmage against host Burlington on Sept. 2, losing 1-0. But they bounced back nicely against host Wayland in the team’s final tuneup to win the close encounter, 2-1 on Sept. 5.
“That was a gutsy win,” said Magana. “We learned not to give up after falling behind, and our new corners did well in this scrimmage.”
There’s always room for improvement, said Magana, but after one game his team appears to be operating on all cylinders as it thrashed the Danvers Falcons in the home opener at Piper, 7-0 on Sept. 8.
