KALONA 

It was a soccer season full of achievements for the Hillcrest Ravens and the accolades came rolling in after their year finished, with six players earning all-conference honors and their head coach, Marcus Miller, being named the Southeast Iowa Super Conference Co-Coach of the year. 

Showing the fruits of their labor, Hillcrest soccer made a six-game improvement from one year ago to reach their most wins since 2019 and for the first time since 2019 the Ravens sat atop the SEISC, winning the conference title outright. 

Going 7-1 at home and 3-1 on the road, the Ravens ended with a 10-4 record. Overall, they scored 49 goals and on defense they accumulated 73 saves while giving up 32 goals. 

After a first-round bye, Hillcrest’s season ended in the semifinals. A home game for the Ravens they fell to the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks, 2-1. 

A healthy dose of offense and strong defense was the Raven’s calling card in many of their victories this year. Their season high in goals was 10 in a road win against Sigourney and they shut out their opponents on defense seven times. 

“[Defense] has been our strength all season long,” Coach Miller said. “Bryce Bailey, Mason Hellmuth, they’re in the middle and Lincoln Miller and Isaac Birky on the sides, they’ve just done a great job all season long. Our goalies have done well [too].”

Defensive anchors Lincoln Miller, Bryce Bailey, Seth Ours all earned honorable mention all-conference honors. For Mason Helmuth, a sophomore defender/midfielder, he was selected for second-team all-conference.

When it came to first team recognition, the junior duo of Micah Gerber and Mason Bender were the Ravens who earned this honor.    

In addition to being an excellent defender, Bender also found the back of the net five times, the third most on the team. 

Gerber, a forward/midfielder, was Mr. Reliable for the Hillcrest offense this season, scoring a team high 14 goals, a career high. This was a tremendous jump for Gerber, who scored one goal the year prior after scoring seven goals as a freshman. 

Gerber also had seven assists, the second most on the team, with Ours having a team leading 11.     

In his 31st season of coaching, Marcus Miller was named co-coach of the year along with Danville head coach Eric Pealer whose team ended with a 11-4 record. 

This accolade only adds to a special season for Coach Miller who also earned his 300th win as a coach when Hillcrest defeated Burlington Notre Dame. 

“I’ve been here a long time,” said Coach Miller after collecting his 300th win. “I’ve been blessed to have good kids to work with, good assistant coaches, good administrators and ADs. Families that have been supportive. This made it much easier.”

Looking towards the future. Hillcrest can expect most of their team to return next year, having only one senior on this year’s squad, Mason Swartzendruber.