AURORA – “1-0” can mean many things.

Maybe it’s the team record after a successful start to a season. One game down, a victory under the belt, and the rest of the season to look forward to.

Or maybe it’s the score of a narrow victory, sneaking one shot past the opposing goalkeeper to come away from a match with a win by the smallest of margins.

For Salida Boys Soccer, 1-0 means one thing: motivation.

The Spartans came up on the wrong end of a 1-0 score against Forge Christian in the 2024 CHSAA 2A state title match, a defeat that left an even greater sting considering they had a goal disallowed due to an offsides call early in the match. Asked to describe the feeling after that championship loss, Salida’s 2025 seniors evoked the visceral emotions of defeat in what many called the biggest game in their lives to that point.

“Heartbreaking,” Jonas Keupper said.

“Gut-wrenching,” Mateo Tressler remembered.

“Still hurts,” said co-captain Daniel Dewalt.

“Sad,” recalled Dewalt’s co-captain Sam Jones, “but motivating. When I come out here (to practice), I think about that game every single day.”

Knowing it’s the final chance at a state title for most of Salida’s senior-heavy roster, the Spartans are motivated to go 1-0 in their final game of the 2025 season – an accomplishment that would carry with it the school’s first boys soccer state title since 2004.

The journey picks up speed at the end of the month, with postseason play beginning Oct. 29 for 3A and 5A teams, and Oct. 30 for 2A and 4A. The season concludes with all four championship games being played Nov. 15 at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs.

While returning all-state first team players Tressler, Dewalt and Isaac Sarmiento have returned for Salida, that isn’t the only talented group seeking redemption. Jefferson Academy has all-stater Troy Brown back from its 3A runner-up team, and in 4A Mullen all-staters Roman Cedillo and Jackson Kaunda are back after finishing second last year.

Defending champion Cherry Creek is 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in the 5A in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding index, Mullen is ranked No. 1 in 4A, Colorado Academy leads the list in 3A and Bruce Randolph is No. 1 in 2A, just ahead of No. 2 Salida, No. 3 Forge Christian and No. 4 Crested Butte.

Individually, Jakob Methvin of Battle Mountain has a state-leading 28 goals, Freddy Flores of Harrison has a state-best 16 assists and, after Methvin’s 63, Ronen Trujillo of Denver Jewish Day ranks second in points with 45 (16 goals, 13 assists). 

Current Salida head coach Aaron Dobson was a member of that 2004 championship team and has spent most of his time since then contributing to the area’s now-rich soccer culture. He has lived in Salida for his entire life, which is also true of many of his current players.

“I realized I wanted to make coaching a big part of my life,” Dobson recounted about the beginning of his coaching journey, “but I was really passionate about, specifically, kids that were growing up in the same area and going through the same things I was going through as a kid and a player. I’m passionate about small-town kids.”

Dobson did something few high school coaches do in any sport – he remained at Salida High School for 10 years as an assistant coach. Learning the ropes under area legend Ben Oswald, who also founded the regional club Chaffee County United (CCU), Dobson eventually found himself as Oswald’s chosen replacement following his retirement, and is now in his fourth season as the Spartans’ head coach. Inheriting a 4-11-1 team, Dobson saw improvement to 6-9-1 under his tutelage in 2022. The Spartans became a winning program once again in 2023, going 8-6-2, then won the Tri-Peaks League in 2024 and advanced to that fateful state title match, finishing the year at 14-2-3.

Now, with a roster full of returning seniors that is well-balanced with talent and skill, Dobson and his squad want to finish what they started.

“They have come so far,” Dobson said, particularly of his seniors. “Having one more year in the tank and realizing you can’t take it for granted and that we’re really on one mission, they are able to kind of compose everybody. They’ve been in big games now. It makes a huge impact.”

Only one player from the 2024 team graduated, and another was an exchange student. Everyone else is back on the 2025 roster, contributing to a refined product on the field due to a maturity forged by both success and failure.

“We’ve got a deep squad,” Dewalt said. “We’ve got a lot of talented players starting and coming off the bench, which is super key. Then obviously, having the pain of losing the state title last year makes a difference.”

That depth has shown up in the development of the Spartans’ offense into a more balanced attack. Current senior Sarmiento paced the squad with 21 goals in 2024, while teammate Mateo Tressler was next with 11. Eleven games into the 2025 season, five different players have at least five goals while an additional eight players have found the back of the net at least once – indications of a team that can strike from any direction at any time.

Tressler has been an offensive orchestrator, adding nine assists to his five goals this year to pace the team in points with 19. Sarmiento has 16 points, and junior Finley Damman has 15 points, while junior Muez Richmond has been dangerous on the attack with seven goals (14 points).

While the Spartans are getting production from plenty of sources, Tressler sees room for improvement.

“I think we need to improve on how quickly we move the ball and the creativity of our play,” he said, citing stagnancy in a Sept. 8 defeat vs. Crested Butte, the Spartans’ only loss of the season so far.

In total, Salida has scored 42 goals this season and given up just six. Five of those six came in one match, the aforementioned 5-2 defeat to Crested Butte.

“We’ve learned a few things from it for sure,” Dobson said about the match. “It was one of those things that helped us realize what we need to sharpen up, especially defensively.”

In the eight matches since, the Spartans have held their opponents to two total goals while scoring 27 of their own. Now on an eight-game winning streak, Dobson has challenged his squad to hold their opponents under 10 total goals for the year.

“Defense is where we’ve always kind of hung our hat,” Dobson said. “We’re an incredibly good defensive team. I think that if we can continue to keep people from breaking us down in the playoffs, that’s going to be the key. It really comes down to the maturity level. With soccer, anything can happen. It’s going to take a really resilient group.”

Fortunately for Dobson’s team, that maturity and resilience has been many years in the making. Most of his players have spent their entire lives in the area. Plenty of them have played soccer together since the ages of four, five, and six years old as part of Chaffee County United, which serves Salida, Buena Vista and beyond. The chemistry that has resulted is simply not reproducible.

Jones experienced that revelation after playing with a club team in a larger city over the summer. 

“This team chemistry we have here in this Salida team is something different,” he said. “These are my brothers here. We’ve been playing here since we were little kids.”

It’s that kind of bond that not only evolves into strong play on the field, but it alwo creates connections that are bigger than soccer – even across enemy lines.

If you were to attend a Salida vs. Buena Vista football game, you’d probably witness all the animosity of a good, old-fashioned, small-town high school rivalry. Buena Vista High School has a great football program, and Salida knows it. 

But the same people sitting on opposite bleachers for Friday night lights are next to each other at Salida boys soccer games, united in support of the Spartans. Buena Vista doesn’t sponsor boys soccer, so some players head down the road from BVHS after school each day, exchanging their Demons gear for Spartans gear before entering the pitch. 

That creates a unique team dynamic, one that necessitates seeing another Spartan teammate as more than just somebody you pass in the hallway and play soccer with after school. Instead, it’s a group of boys sharing the small-town experience. Their days may look different, but they all end up on the same field, preparing to go on a title run.

That run isn’t even entirely about the soccer played or the memories made. It’s about bringing a community together. And while these players have their sights set on going 1-0 in the most important match of the year, they also carry a perspective that feels rare for their age group – an understanding that the joy of accomplishment is found in those you journey with toward the goal. 

“These guys are my family,” said Keupper, who lives in Buena Vista and attends BVHS. “Even if we don’t end up with a state title out of it, then I’ve still got all these people that I’ve made connections with and I love. That’s the important part for me.” 

Sounds like a winning recipe.